Synopsis
The story of the rape of Nanking, one of the most tragic events in history. In 1937, the invading Japanese army murdered over 200,000 and raped tens of thousands of Chinese. In the midst of this horror, a small group of Western expatriates banded together to save 250,000. Nanking shows the tremendous impact individuals can make on the course of history.
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Cast
- Hugo ArmstrongJohn Magee
- Rosalind ChaoChang Yu Zheng
- Stephen DorffLewis Smythe
- John GetzGeorge Fitch
- Mariel HemingwayMinnie Vautrin
- Michelle KrusiecYang Shu Ling
- Chris MulkeyMills McCallum
- Woody HarrelsonBob Wilson
Recommendations
- 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Not only is the film a powerful historical record and a warning for future generations, it is an essential reminder to people, including many in Japan today, who might deny that this massacre ever occurred. As such, Nanking honors the highest calling of documentary filmmaking. - 90
Time
I have rarely, if ever, seen a documentary reconstruction of a historical event that is so rich in firsthand (and well-preserved) photographic material. - 88
TV Guide Magazine
What Guttentag and Sturman gain in dramatic immediacy, however, they lose when it comes to historical context, and the chance to offer insight into why such things occur in the first place -- and continue to happen today -- is lost. - 80
Variety
The horrific 1937-38 massacre of more than 200,000 Chinese during the early days of the Japanese occupation gets a polished presentation in Nanking. - 80
The New York Times
What makes the film bearable is the knowledge that a few people did what they could to hold the line against humanity’s worst instincts. The voices in Nanking speak for the persistence of good in times and places where a moral crevice opens to reveal a vision of hell on earth. - 80
Salon
Nanking both calls attention to a horrifying set of war crimes that remains little known in the West and crafts an impossible-but-true hymn to the power of the individual conscience. - 75
New York Post
Everyone knows about the Holocaust, but few today have heard about what was infamous as the Rape of Nanking, when 200,000 residents of what was then China's capital were massacred by invading Japanese troops. - 75
New York Daily News
It is the devastating testimony from survivors themselves that leaves the most indelible impression.
