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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Dear Kinejapaners,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Clearly the German film <EM>John Rabe</EM> will not be of
direct interest to all listmembers, but a Q&A with the director, this week
in London, had a number of connections to Japanese cinema, and so, rather than
select from it, I'm posting my notes for you to delete or read, as you
wish.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Roger</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><FONT face=Arial><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><U><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt">John Rabe</SPAN></U></I><U><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">,</SPAN> 2009, Florian
GALLENBERGER<o:p></o:p></U></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Thursday 3 Dec
2009, Q&A in English with Gallenberger and several others,, incl, a
producer, his PA and translator, costume designer, & 2 others.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(No actors, not even Togo IGAWA, who is
normally resident in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:City>).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>From notes typed at the time, but NOT VERBATIM.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Complemented
Gallenberger on the film and, in particular, the multi-lingual nature and
crediting of at least 14 translators, [incl. subtitles<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>J.J. McCabe].<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How had the script been
constructed?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FB: I wrote the
script, with numerous reworkings, using translators for the Japanese and Chinese
[his English proved in the interview to be excellent.]</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Distribution
in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FB: None
yet.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Japanese Embassy in
<st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Berlin</st1:place></st1:State> asked
to see it, to understand what sort of treatment this issue was going to
have.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We agreed.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The ambassador subsequently wrote that
it was an important film.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>We have had
one offer to distribute in Japan, but only if the role of Prince Asaka was
entirely removed – (Gallenberger explained that the actor of this role, KAGAWA
Teruyuki, was very well known in Japan – so this was an offer to remove the one
name from the film that was bankable there).</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>[The character
of Prince Asaka in the film is haughty, tyrannical and absolutist.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He explicitly justifies his order to
murder prisoners by linking it to the Emperor’s wish to conclude the campaign
swiftly.]</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>The film was
going to be shown at a historical convention in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, but at
last minute didn’t happen.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Gallenberger doesn’t understand why.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>“The film won’t
be complete until it’s got a distribution in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.”</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Are all the
characters real ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FG:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>No, some were created for dramatic
purposes. The student photographer is an invented character.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Can you say
something about casting ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FG: <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Steve Buschemi: it took a while to get
his attention, but he was highly professional and committed, once signed
up. ... It was difficult to find Japanese actors who were
willing to be in the film.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Where did you
find the locations ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FG: 80% Shanghai
20% <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Nanjing</st1:place></st1:City>.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>For the Siemens compound, we used the old airport at <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Shanghai</st1:place></st1:City> and built the
buildings we needed.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q; Why was there
so little footage of the atrocities ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: Atrocities
were only shown in the context of the characters.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>German reaction to the film has been
that was that there was too much, Chinese that there was not enough.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: What of the
character in the film who is the replacement manager sent out by Siemens.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Did such a person exist or is he created
to show Rabe as the ‘Good Nazi’ ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FG: Yes
[laughs], the replacement manager of the Siemens plant is an invented
character.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: [about the
position of Rabe]</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: Rabe was the
only person who thought that Rabe was a Nazi.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Was the
Japanese officer with a conscience real?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FG: <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>No.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I did speak to Japanese who were
unhappy with what was happening at that time, so I felt the invented character
was justified.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: [subsequently
?]</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: After the
war, General Matsui was sentenced to death but Prince Asaka was not in the
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:City> war
trials.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>After the war he was very
respectable art collector and led a happy and quiet life.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: What sparked
your interest in the subject ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: One of the
producers not present today read the diaries at the end of 90s when it came
out.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then I read the diaries.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I wouldn’t have liked the character of
Rabe that is revealed at the beginning of the film, but his actions reveal
something different and that’s what I find interesting..</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: [Fate of
Rabe?]</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: After his
return, Rabe wrote a book and gave lectures, trying to get attention to what
happened. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When this started
to get slightly larger audiences he was arrested by the Gestapo, his diaries
were confiscated., and he was pressured to keep quiet.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>After the war, Chiang Kai-shek offered a
pension for him to testify at the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:City> war crimes trial.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But he declined, on the basis that paid
evidence would be tainted.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Rabe’s
denazification could not be automatic because he had chaired a meeting of the NS
party [In Nanking, I think JG means] [The end-title of the film had already
explained that Rabe died in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Berlin</st1:place></st1:State> in obscurity in 1950].</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q; Comparable to
<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Schindler’s List</I> ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: I did NOT
watch <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Schindler’s List</I> because then I
wouldn’t have my own idea.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Experience of
directing together actors from different countries ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: [Gave credit
to his assistant and translators]<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The Japanese actors do exactly what you tell them to, and take freedom
exactly when you tell them to.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Ulrich Mühe</SPAN>
was going to be Rabe but he died before they shot.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then chose Ulrich Tukur<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They have very different
approaches.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Mühe</SPAN> was
more analytical, Tukur more extempore.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Directing in
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region> ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: Difficulties
made it hard to keep the [basic] idea ‘in all the craziness’.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: How is Rabe
known in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">China</st1:country-region></st1:place> ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Assistant:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mainly by intellectuals.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>JG: in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Nanjing</st1:place></st1:City> quite a lot, which helped in getting
extras..</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Why the
growth of interest in the massacre?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face=Arial>JG: <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region> is no longer at the end of the
world.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Iris Chang
was instrumental to the discovery of Rabe’s diaries. ...</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Q</I>; What about the film <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Nanjing</I></st1:City></st1:place><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">! <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Nanjing</st1:City></st1:place>!</I> ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: He had
communication with that team during the shoot. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Used the same three tanks, and some of
the minor Japanese actors (since there were not many who were prepared to appear
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">China</st1:country-region></st1:place>).</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: What of the
other nine or so films slated on the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Nanjing</st1:place></st1:City> massacre ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: Hmm, I heard
of a number like that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Apart from
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Nanjing</I></st1:City></st1:place><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">! <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Nanjing</st1:place></st1:City>! </I><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>one other film got into pre-production,
but I haven’t heard of any others being filmed, and they seem to have fallen by
the way, after these two got into production.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q; Finance
?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>JG: Lots of
German, some French, some Chinese, who haven’t, by the way, heard the word
‘licence fee’, and have terrible problems with piracy [I notice that there was a
multi-print distribution in China in April].</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Chinese
censorship?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FG:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To make a film in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region>, you have
to go through censorship.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The short
version is that it was easy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some
small parts they wanted removed from the Chinese distributed version.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was harder to get permission for
permission at the start.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On my
first informal reconnaissance visit, I got a call on my temporary mobile phone
(whose number no one knew), before we’d even applied, saying there was to be
only one version that had to have a Chinese director, so we should not bother to
continue.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But after much work,
things changed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We actually
inserted some other points in the script to be cut by the censors, but they
didn’t cut them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Also they didn’t
enforce censorship on shooting, unlike the Indians.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: So what were
the minor parts that needed removing from the Chinese version ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FG: Chinese
asked that the nudity and the Nazi salute by the Chinese be removed.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Q: Can I press
you on this?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What was the Chinese
view on the depiction of KMT resistance to the Japanese ?</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>FG: Ah, in the
early scene with the medal-giving by the Chinese government to Rabe [used in the
film operatically for the ‘good doctor’ to pass comments, in an
aside, about the ‘toadying Nazi’], we were not allowed to use the name of
Chiang Kai-shek.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face=Arial><U>Postscript</U> by RM:</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>My biggest
regret that was that we did not develop a line of questioning on his research,
or the script-writing in Asian languages (the multiple credits for translators
were actually for production, not the script).<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I recall now, at the beginning of the
film are two shots, one of Rabe writing a journal and then, immediately
afterwards, of Rabe being shown with proper Nazi attitudes and being both
patronising and authoritarian with the Chinese.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So, there was a perfectly good health
warning that the film was constructed through the viewpoint of someone with such
attitudes.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But this warning got
forgotten, partly with the high-impact of the film, but also because of the
film’s multi-lingual format, which gave it a veneer of objectivity and
balance.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m tempted to call this
coloration (re-coloration?) of the script ‘non-abusive’ (plundering from
Nornes).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Conveying a story through
archetypes is a much-hallowed path, but none of the archetypes were adult
Chinese.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The main character of <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Nanjing! Nanjing!</I>, a Chinese deputy to
Rabe, is virtually a non-speaking part in this film.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial>Then there’s the
question as to fusing archetypes onto historical persons.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are, of course, august literary
precedents for so doing, but it does not lie well with a format with high claims
to historic reportage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
character of Prince Asaka Yasuhiko is not an archetype but is conveyed as
instigating atrocities in direct language.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My first reaction was that he
wouldn’t have needed to employ such direct language, given his aristocratic
rank.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But then I thought of Lord
Mountbatten, who was of comparable position to the throne.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When I listened in after the war to
members of UK forces in India praising Mountbatten, my father would always voice
a dissenting view that the language with which he addressed the troops was
unforgivable (and he would never give me examples). <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I can’t be sure on that
point.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> But I can understand any one being
</SPAN>wary of taking on the distribution of the film in Japan ~ would its
less-than-perfect portrayal be worth the real risks ?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But an offer to buy the rights and cut
the Asaka role could not have been made for commercial
reasons.</FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>