This film is a not-so-subtle piece of propaganda, written primarily for the people of Japan who apparently needed to wallow in the self-pity they experienced in the wake of World War II. Masterfully set around a benevolent, loving and "enlightened" teacher - who even manages to "shock" the island's inhabitants by wearing Western clothes and riding a bicycle - and her twelve original pupils, whose "twenty-four teary eyes" are constantly exploited for the manipulation of the viewer, the story does nothing to appeal to the collective sense of shame and remorse that the Japanese nation should have felt. War was treated as something of a "brutal reality" that somehow was "forced" on Japan and its inhabitants, to the point that she had to send her young men to spill their blood and give their lives heroically in the defense of the "motherland." Most infuriating was the casual mention of the "incidents" in Manchuria and Shanghai. Not even a word, if only in passing, about Nanking! Let the viewer - especially the Japanese viewer! - remember that many of the girls raped in Nanking were not much older than the teary-eyed girls shown in the film. Chinese young men fared no better as many were decapitated or buried alive for the "sport" and amusement of the Japanese butchers!
This is the most shameful film in memory, one that even the Nazi propaganda machine would have had a hard time pulling off - yes, Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of it. A TOTAL WASTE OF TWO-AND-A-HALF HOURS! I will have to wash this filth from my mind tomorrow by viewing the 2007 documentary "Nanking." And, finally, a question for all those who have lavished praise for the story, the actors the director and his cinematic "accomplishment": If this story had been written in Germany in 1954 by a famous film-maker and presented to the world as a reality in that country during the years the story covered, would the movie critics' reaction be the same? Would YOUR reaction be the same? Something to think about!
This is the most shameful film in memory, one that even the Nazi propaganda machine would have had a hard time pulling off - yes, Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of it. A TOTAL WASTE OF TWO-AND-A-HALF HOURS! I will have to wash this filth from my mind tomorrow by viewing the 2007 documentary "Nanking." And, finally, a question for all those who have lavished praise for the story, the actors the director and his cinematic "accomplishment": If this story had been written in Germany in 1954 by a famous film-maker and presented to the world as a reality in that country during the years the story covered, would the movie critics' reaction be the same? Would YOUR reaction be the same? Something to think about!