《纽约时报》：南京大屠杀电影日本士兵新形象

　　《纽约时报》：南京大屠杀电影中日本士兵的新形象

　　一位中国电影导演因为拍摄一部反映二战时期南京屠杀的影片而被指责。

　　发自北京的报道——大学生陈琳（音译）听到周围对一部讲述30万中国人被屠杀的新电影产生了热烈的讨论。

　　朋友们告诉她，这部中国电影人发行的电影《南京！南京！》场面残酷：大量的强奸，砍头，活埋。

　　和许多电影人的苦恼：陆川导演把日本士兵真正当人看待，他们也有人性缺点，他们自身也受杀戮和暴行的影响。

　　“我的朋友说，去看看，这部电影讲述一段痛苦的故事，但视角很不一样”，陈告诉记者。

　　四月上映以来，公众对于这部电影的评论反应非常大，还有一些对影院经理是否爱国发出质疑的声音。

　　这部电影由中影集团（国营企业）发行，获得政府审查通过。在此之前，也因太多暴力场面，要求被剪。但电影还是激起了很多博客写手的愤怒，陆川还收到一封死亡威胁信。

　　日本兵一贯被描写成无脑的杀人犯，似乎和这部电影里的日本兵有所不同，相比之下，他们有人性脆弱的一面。

　　这部黑白电影，通过不同人的视角讲述37年的大屠杀，一些是虚构，大部分是有史实依据。

　　和受惊吓的无辜受害者一样，有一名普通日本士兵无法承受战争的残忍而结束自己生命。

　　中国非常愤怒，因为日本政府至今既不道歉，也不承认被屠杀的人数，有些日本历史学家更把这段历史从教科书上抹去。

　　许多人对影片中人物的自责并不认可。

　　“我从没遇到一个日本人会像电影里的日本兵那样会良心发现。陆川，南京的30万亡灵不会原谅你的，你这个卖国贼，为日本人掩盖大屠杀的真相”。一个人在博客上这样写道。

　　在南京，一些大屠杀幸存者的反应特别强烈。87岁的赵振刚（音译）老人说日本兵根本就没有电影里的日本兵那样有人性。“这种处理方法不仅和历史不符，好像还要原谅他们”，她说。

　　南京作家张丽家（音译），有些人认为美化了日本士兵，但她内心比较矛盾。

　　“我理解他们恨日本兵，大屠杀特别残忍，但日本人也是人，大部分中国人对于发生在南京的惨案，心里是痛的。这种受害者心里是一种狭隘的民族情绪。很无奈。”

　　美国导演克林特伊斯伍德的电影《硫磺岛的来信》2006年在日本上映，就受到了美国共和党的无声的批评，批评他在影片中对日本士兵的同情。

　　美国公众没有那么激烈，但中国的情况不一样。

　　同时，一些对《南京！南京！》的评价令人印象深刻。

　　“我认为这部电影十分客观，两国宣布开战，普通人在打仗。”22岁的陈琳说。

　　李昂，北京一家影院经理，“不管你喜不喜欢，这部电影真实反映历史，不仅是中国人的层面，但也没有美化日本人，这只是讲了鲜为人知的真相。”

　　一些来自日本的评价赞同陆川的观点。

　　“这是一部艺术作品，所以并不是每个细节都是真实，中国现在是一个多元的社会，我们应该容纳不同的声音。”参加过抗日战争的王锦思（音译）说。

　　陆川说，参加这部电影拍摄的日本演员最初不赞同日军在南京犯下的罪行，后来心里很难过。“他们哭了，想要离开剧组，那些强奸和屠杀让他们快要疯了，他们这种状态正是我想要在电影里表达的东西。”陆川说。

　　这部电影还未在日本上映，陆川说，他甚至不求回报，也要让这部电影在日本上映。

　　对于他来说，没有什么批评可以比得上四年创作上的艰辛和折磨，“我的心里是痛苦的，黑暗的，像在地狱里。”

　　《The New York Times》

　　Film on Nanjing massacre shows Japanese soldiers in new light

　　A Chinese director is criticized for suggesting that some were deeply conflicted over World War II atrocities.

　　Reporting from Beijing -- College student Chen Lin heard the buzz about the new film depicting the horrors of Japan's World War II-era massacre of 300,000 Chinese civilians in Nanjing.

　　Friends told her that the images in the Chinese-distributed drama, "City of Life and Death," would be brutal -- mass rapes, point-blank executions, public beheadings and victims buried alive.

　　But perhaps as disturbing to many filmgoers: Director Lu Chuan portrays Japanese soldiers as real people, with human flaws, some deeply conflicted over the murder and mayhem they inflict.

　　"My friends said go see it," Chen said. "It tells the same painful story, but from a different point of view."

　　Since its April release, a public uproar has ensued, with some viewers walking out, a few questioning the theater manager's patriotism.

　　Distributed by the state-run China Film Group and approved by the Communist Party -- after many of its most violent scenes were excised by censors -- the film has nonetheless drawn the ire of many bloggers. Lu has even received death threats.

　　Accustomed to Japanese soldiers being demonized as mindless murderers, many were unprepared for a more balanced rendering of human frailty.

　　Called "Nanjing Nanjing" here, the black-and-white film plays like a 1930s newsreel as it details the carnage through the eyes of characters, some fictional and some based on true accounts.

　　Along with the terrified victims, there is an ordinary Japanese soldier so haunted by the brutality that he takes his own life.

　　China remains irate that Japanese politicians have neither apologized for nor admitted the scope of the killings, while Japanese historians have erased the episode from their nation's textbooks.

　　Many aren't buying the film characters' remorse.

　　"I have never met a Japanese person that has found their conscience like those in the movie," one blogger vented. "Lu Chuan, 300,000 Nanjing souls will not forgive you, you modern Chinese traitor, for covering up the Nanjing massacre for the Japanese!"

　　In Nanjing, home to many elderly survivors of the 1937 attack, the response has been particularly vitriolic.

　　Zhao Zhengang, 87, said the real Japanese soldiers showed no such mercy as that depicted in the film. "Such handling is not only inconsistent with history, but also shows an attitude of forgiving them," she told the news media.

　　Nanjing native Lijia Zhang, a writer, said that many here believed the film glorified Japanese soldiers but that she had mixed emotions. "I understand the hatred. The atrocities were incredibly brutal, but the Japanese were still human," she said. "But for most Chinese what happened in Nanjing is still a running sore. This victim mentality is a form of narrow nationalism. It's a pity."

　　In 2006, director Clint Eastwood received muted criticism from some U.S. Republicans for his sympathetic view of Japanese soldiers in "Letters From Iwo Jima," which was lauded by film critics in Japan.

　　But unlike in China, there was no public outrage in the U.S.

　　At the same time, some Chinese viewers of "City of Life and Death" have been impressed.

　　"I thought it was very objective," said Chen, 22. "Governments declare wars, ordinary people fight them."

　　Li Ang, a Beijing theater general manager, said: "Whether you like it or not, the film shows history as it was, not just the Chinese side. It didn't promote the Japanese. It merely related untold truths."

　　Some strong critics of Japan agree that there is room for Lu's vision.

　　"This is an artistic work, so we cannot expect every detail to be true," said Wang Jinsi, a member of China's War of Resistance Against Japan Assn. "China is now a much more pluralistic society. We should allow for different voices."

　　Lu has told reporters that many of the film's Japanese actors who had initially disagreed about the scope of the Imperial Army's crimes in Nanjing later found the filming difficult. "They cried and asked to leave because the atrocities in the massacre, like raping and killing, drove them crazy," he said. "I think their pain and confusion were just what I wanted to present in the movie."

　　The film has yet to be screened in Japanese theaters. Lu has said he would offer it free to distributors.

　　For him, no criticism could match the four-year project's emotional toll. "My heart was in pain and darkness," he told the state-run New China News Agency. "It was like in hell."