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.
Review of John Rabe
