Analysis Of Saving Private Ryan

missionary Wilhelmina Vautrin’s diary accounts (1937–1940) about a young Japanese soldier with Christian background. The recognition of Kadokawa’s potential humanity effectively defuses the nationalist thrust of the classic Massacre narrative in previous Chinese cinema. The inclusion of Western histor- ical figures (John Rabe and Wilhelmina Vautrin), the documentary-style black and white images, as well as the avoidance of emotive music, exemplifies the filmmaker’s intention to not indulge in excessive lamentation, but to scrutinize the atrocity with a sense of sober detachment. The nuanced treatment of the Massacre fits into Lu Chuan’s oeuvre and embodies certain characteristics of art film, yet such artistic vision is carefully contained

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the effects team of Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg 1998), cast a Hollywood star in the lead and invested in a US company for mainstream release during a Christmas holiday slot (Chen 2011). The reference to Hollywood in terms of storytelling, combat sequence and visual spectacle is underwritten by the assumption that the adoption of Hollywood aesthetics would enable the “cross- over” of the Chinese film to the world.
The strategic maneuvering to reapproach the sensitive issue of the Nanjing Massacre in both films reveals the filmmakers’ desire to promote the national tragedy worldwide. At the historical moment when China is integrating with the world economically, politically and culturally, the Chinese film industry has experienced significant adjustments in order to exploit global opportunities while also operating in more localized markets. The concern for both Chinese and international audiences tends to “liberate” the cinematic narrative from the ideological grip of the clichéd self/other rhetoric. Yet controversies around these commercially successful films in China indicate a rather ambivalent reception of their rewriting of the Nanjing Massacre from the government and the audiences alike. For instance, City of Life and Death enjoyed massive promotion through various channels of mainstream media, but its nomination for the 13th Chinese Huabiao Awards was pulled from contention a week before the awards cere- mony (Kraicer 2010). When the promotional material of The Flowers of War describes the Chinese actress’s bed scene with Christian Bale, many Chinese audiences frown at the inappropriateness of focusing upon sexuality in a patrio- tic epic. At the textual level, the constant oscillation between discourses of Chinese heroism and internationalism leads to narrative tensions and moral ambivalences. City of Life and Death and The Flowers of War are confronted by two outstanding issues: the adaptation of Hollywood’s classic white savior narrative and