"Nanking", a U.S.-made documentary film, tells of a story about atrocities committed by Japanese troops in China during World War II. It has begun to show in theaters all over the world since its premiere at the National Political Consultative Auditorium in Beijing on July 3, 2007.
On July 20, Ted Leonsis, the film's producer, Vice Chairman of America Online, and Violet Feng, co-producer from China have an interview by email from People's Daily Online and given their opinions both on "Nanking" and behind "Nanking". Emma Griffiths, one of the publicists on "Nanking", who have arranged this interview for us.
AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis (left), producer of the documentary film "Nanking", and Violet Feng, co-producer of "Nanking". (File photo)"Nanking", an anti-war filmAs an American, what compels you to make such a film on this period of Chinese history? What is the purpose of such a film? And, what kind of message do you wish to send to the audiences who see “Nanking”?Ted: "Nanking" is an anti-war film that shows the horrors of what happens to a poor civilian and innocent class of people when an invading army occupies a foreign land. It also shows the power of individual goodness as heroic Chinese and Westerners work together to ultimately save 250,000 people. The purpose of this film was to tell these two stories in a coherent piece of work and to teach people to not repeat history.
What kind of differences do you notice in audiences watching "Nanking" in China, Japan and western countries? What is the reason for these differences?Ted: I've only seen the film with US and Chinese audiences and both responded the same way – with humanity, respect, tears and applause.
Violet: Since China and Japan are the nations directly involved, it is natural for the viewers to have profound national feelings, as if raking up all that muck about their respective past. Thus we’ve noticed that the audiences would care much about how we portrayed their separate image. And we often heard such questions like, "Westerners will take Japanese as devils of all evils just because of this film?", "Why in this film there are so limited shots to show how Chinese fought against Japan's aggression?". All these questions are worth considering and exploring.
During the entire course of film making, we avoid plots involving national feelings, because what we want to produce is a film of human and anti-war.
What about the response to this film in the United States? How do westerners see this period of history? Ted： Most westerners, like me, knew nothing of this incident in time and history. I was personally saddened that there was a forgotten holocaust and am honored to bring this story to hopefully a billion people around the world.
How do the people whom you have touched from China or other nations look at this time period?Ted: All people disdain war and the outcome of war to poor civilians. I am hopeful that we can learn from our collective pasts and not be doomed to repeat it.
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