''Don't Cry, Nanking'', also known as ''Nanjing 1937'' (), is a 1995

Chinese film The cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, '' Dingjun Mountain'' ...

about the 1937

Nanking Massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...

committed by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

in the former capital city

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Plot

Set in late December 1937, the story focuses on a family, a Chinese doctor, his pregnant Japanese wife and their two children, who escaped the

Battle of Shanghai The Battle of Shanghai () was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan at the beginning of th ...

hoping to seek refuge in the capital where the doctor was born. Being Japanese, the wife must hide her origins to the Chinese citizens, but soon upon their arrival, the city is invaded by the

and this time, it is the father who tries to hide his identity as the family tries to reach the safety zone established by the International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone. Among historical characters such as John Rabe and

Minnie Vautrin Wilhelmina "Minnie" Vautrin (September 27, 1886 – May 14, 1941) was an Americans, American missionary, diarist, educator and president of Ginling College. She was a Christian missionary in China for 28 years. She is known for the care and prote ...

, the film also features an out-of-context excerpt of the infamous Contest to kill 100 people using a sword between Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyochi Noda. There are some painful and brutal scenes such as the execution, by machine gun, of thousands of Chinese

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

. Being produced before the publishing of such books like

Iris Chang Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968November 9, 2004) was a Chinese American journalist, author of historical books and political activist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, '' The Rape of Nanking'', an ...

's ''

The Rape of Nanking The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...

'' and

Herbert Bix Herbert P. Bix (born 1938) is an American historian. He wrote ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', an account of the Japanese Emperor and the events which shaped modern Japanese imperialism, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonficti ...

's '' Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', the movie shows General

Iwane Matsui was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary force sent to China in 1937. He was convicted of war crimes and executed by the Allies for his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre. Born in Nagoya, Matsui chose ...

giving the order to "kill all the captives" and omits any reference to Prince Asaka.

Cast

* Chin Han - Shing Yin * Rene Liu - Shu Qin *

Cho Yuet Cho or CHO may refer to: People * Chief Happiness Officer Surnames * Cho (Korean surname), one romanization of the common Korean surname * Zhuo (), romanized Cho in Wade–Giles, Chinese surname * Cho, a Minnan romanization of the Chinese su ...

- Lui Oi *

Ulrich Ottenburger Ulrich (), is a German given name, derived from Old High German ''Uodalrich'', ''Odalric''. It is composed of the elements '' uodal-'' meaning "(noble) heritage" and ''-rich'' meaning "rich, powerful". Attested from the 8th century as the name of A ...

- John Rabe *

Michael Zannett Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

- John Magee *

Rebecca Peyrelon Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...

- missionary Miss Hua

Reception

Upon its release in 1995, the movie grossed HK$2,102,915 in Hong Kong. The film was not released in Japan until December 1997, nearly two years after its completion.

References

External links

*
''Don't Cry, Nanjing''
from the Chinese Movie Database

on director Wu Ziniu Nanjing Massacre films Second Sino-Japanese War films 1995 films 1990s Mandarin-language films Chinese war drama films Films set in the 1930s Films directed by Wu Ziniu Films scored by Tan Dun 1990s war drama films 1995 drama films Chinese World War II films {{war-drama-film-stub

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links