Revisiting the horrors of Nanjing四月大银幕上回望“南京大屠杀”

导读：无论岁月几番更替，南京大屠杀是中国人心头永远也抹不去的伤痛，忘却无异于又一次屠杀。 今年4月下旬，两部南京题材电影《南京！南京！》、《拉贝日记》相继走进公众视线。 其中《南京！南京！》采用黑白片方式，力求真实还原南京大屠杀的历史(revisiting the horrors of Nanjing)。
http://www.i21st.cn/story/500.html
Revisiting the horrors of Nanjing
四月大银幕上回望“南京大屠杀”
FROM 21st century
PUBLISHED: 2009-05-15
  Cosmopolitan: "Chinese people were frequently portrayed as weak and helpless victims in the massacre. It's not totally true," Lu Chuan said.
Xinhuanet: The atrocities of the Nanjing Massacre were remembered again on Friday with the Beijing premiere of the film, "City of Life and Death".
美好的事物总是相伴而至。电影也是如此。
Good things come in double doses – so it is with films.
相隔一周的时间，两部记载1937年日军占领南京后的悲惨大屠杀题材的电影先后公映。
The heartrending story of the massacre in Nanjing, shortly after it fell to Japanese in late 1937, commonly known as "the rape of Nanking", is the subject of two movies, which premiere a week apart.
陆川导演的《南京！南京！》从3个不同的角度展示了那场暴行和解救的全景。
Lu Chuan`s City of Life and Death (Nanjing Nanjing) gives a panoramic view of the atrocities and the rescue, from three different perspectives.
其一，故事讲述了士兵们护城失败，日军大肆屠城的故事。
The first tells the story of the soldiers, whose failed defense of the city led to the rampan execution-style killings by the Japanese.
其二，影片深刻记录了存活下来的老百姓以及那些甘冒生命危险保护他们的人们的故事。
The second gives a poignant account of civilian survivors and those who risked their lives to save them.
最后，影片中还描述了一名日本士兵。尽管身边充斥着残暴行为，他仍然竭力维持人类的尊严。
The third is about one Japanese soldier who manages to retain a semblance of human decency despite all the cruelties around him.
很显然，陆川从史蒂文-斯皮尔伯格以及罗曼-波兰斯基等大导演身上学到了不少。
Lu has obviously learned a lot from great directors like Steven Spielberg and Roman Polanski.
一开始，他就做了一个大胆的决定：要制作高预算的史诗般的黑白电影。从商业角度上看，这个决定风险极高，但却为影片增添了不少庄严的感觉。
To start with, he took a bold step in making a high-budget epic in black and white, which was commercially risky but added a great deal of gravitas.
此外，影片还反映了他的艺术完整性。考虑到该角色无法在那样的历史环境下存活，更别提是和女演员约会了，他便将一名深受女观众喜爱的男演员的影片放映时间减至一半。
He showed his artistic integrity by cutting a matinee idol`s screen time in half because he felt that his role had no chance of surviving in that environment, let alone lead to a date with the female
另外一部该题材的电影《拉贝日记》是由中德合作而成。
Another movie about the event, John Rabe, is a Sino-German co-production.
这是一部围绕一位救援者的传记片。
It is a biopic focusing on one of the most important of the rescuers.
（故事主人公）拉贝是当时南京的西门子电气公司负责人，他曾是一名纳粹党人，是希特勒的拥护者。
John Rabe was the head of the electronics company Siemens, Nanjing, who was a Nazi and supporter of Hitler.
随着故事的展开，深入到历史的风暴中的他毅然加入了一群亡命国外者的队伍，建立起一个难民安全区，成功挽救约20万人的性命。
As the story unfolds, he`s thrust into the storm of history and joins a small group of expatriates in setting up a refugee zone, which ended up protecting as many as 200,000 people.
由于它范围有限，且能更全面地探索片中的主要角色，传记片《拉贝日记》可以说是一部伟大的电影。
The John Rabe biopic could have been a great film because it has a limited scope and is better equipped to explore the key characters more fully.
然而，不幸的是，它被政治正确性所压倒，结果只成了故事主线的一个无力的补充。
Unfortunately, it is overtaken by political correctness and ends up as a feeble supplement to the main story.
(Translator & Editor: SYLVIE AND 小胡)
阅读工具
atrocities 暴行
unfolds 展开
thrust into 深入
massacre 残杀, 大屠杀
carnage 大屠杀, 残杀
execution-style killings 处决式杀害
persecution 迫害
torture 折磨
gang rape 集体强奸
arson 纵火
behead 斩首, 砍头
bayonet 用刺刀刺
bury alive 活埋