|
China unveils plans for Japanese war atrocity film
2006-08-15
China unveiled plans on Monday to make a war movie, produced and financed by Americans, chronicling the 1937 massacre of civilians in Nanjing by invading Japanese soldiers. Announcement of the film project came a day before Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was expected to visit a controversial shrine where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals are honored alongside Japan's 2.5 million war dead. Tuesday marks the 61st anniversary of Tokyo's World War Two surrender. The planned film about the massacres of tens of thousands of Chinese civilians by Japanese troops will be based on Iris Chang's best-selling account, "The Rape of Nanking," Xinhua news agency said. "We hope we can make the film a classic on a massacre in the Second World War, just like 'Schindler's List' about the miserable experience of Jewish people during the war," Gerald Green, the American producer of the movie, was quoted as saying. Green's producer credits include Oliver Stone's 1986 film "Salvador" and the Emmy-winning 1978 television miniseries "Holocaust." According to official Chinese accounts, 300,000 Chinese men, women and children were slaughtered by invading Japanese troops in the war-time capital Nanjing, formerly known as Nanking. The 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops killed 155,000 people, mainly women and children. "Those who were killed during the massacre should not be forgotten, so we think it is a must to make a movie about it and to show the world the truth," Li Xiangmin, chairman of Jiangsu Cultural Industry Group, the Chinese investor based in Nanjing, told Reuters by telephone. "It is not to stimulate hatred, but to let the lessons learned from the past to serve the future." A Hollywood entertainment company was investing $20 million into the film budgeted at $25 million, Li said. Xinhua said investors were hoping to cast such high-profile names as Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh, stars of Oscar-winning martial-arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The movie is scheduled to start shooting in "weeks to come" and would debut in China next year, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, Xinhua said. (Additional reporting by Vivi Lin) Reuters/VNU
`Chuck & Larry' has box-office edge (2007-07-22)Korean monster movie tops first Asian film awards (2007-03-20)China unveils plans for Japanese war atrocity film (2006-08-15)China Cancels Release of 'Geisha' (2006-02-01)China Hasn't OK'd Release of 'Geisha' (2006-01-26)
| 
