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Reviews
Dai-bosatsu tôge (1966)
Where was the duel?
I like the interpretation of Ithearod (Nov. 7, 2007) of the ending - Ryunosuke is already dead and in a Dantean circle of never ending fighting and pain - but unless I missed something there is another hole in the chronology. Ryunosuke has a date to meet Hyoma in a duel in the morning, but after he kills his common-law wife (the actual wife of his earlier victim), the scene suddenly shifts to Kyoto, to which Ryunosuke has repaired with the gang of murderers he has joined. It's only in Kyoto, and indeed at the brothel where Ryunosuke meets Omatsu, that his madness reaches its climax. Up to that point, he is largely in control of what he does. So, why did he not meet Hyoma in the duel?
John Rabe (2009)
What Happened to the Prisoners in the School?
This film is worth seeing, if only because we in the U.S. have not really learned very much about the Rape of Nanking. Beyond that, it is a gripping film with believable characters. However, a crucial point was overlooked by the director. The whole reason the Safety Zone was going to be razed, and the reason it was eventually taken over by the Japanese, was that the school was harboring Chinese prisoners of the Japanese, i.e., Chinese soldiers, who if caught by the Japanese would have been massacred. But at the end of the film, the Japanese do take over the Safety Zone, so it seems unlikely that they would not have discovered the prisoners. Consequently, again a huge risk was taken by Rabe and the others, not to mention the Chinese "defenders," for a futile purpose.