How 2009 movie John Rabe depicts Nanking massacre in China through a Western lens
The film tells the story of the Japanese massacre of Chinese civilians through the eyes of ‘good’ Nazi John Rabe
This is the latest instalment in a feature series reflecting on instances of East meets West in world cinema, including China-US co-productions.
Some 70 years after the Nanking massacre of 1937-38, two films sought to dramatise its horrors, taking their cues from Schindler’s List.
Like Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, Chinese director Lu Chuan’s City of Life and Death (2009) was shot in washed-out black and white to convey a sense of history – and hopelessness. It won rave reviews and picked up awards across the world.
Florian Gallenberger’s lesser-known John Rabe (2009), meanwhile, was a more modest affair centred on the real-life figure of John Rabe who was, like Schindler, a “good” Nazi.
A co-production between Germany, China and France, the film was based on Rabe’s published diaries and chooses to tell the story from a Western perspective.