Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking

Unlike other reviewers, I had no problem with the film as it stands: it accomplishes that it set out to do: portraying Iris Chang, beginning with her attendance at a display of photographs from that horrific massacre, and continuing with the process of her research, which included taped interviews with survivors, and discovery of documents of major importance.

That it incorporates footage and photographs of the unspeakably horrific massacre directly illustrates her discoveries, and follows her progress through the writing of "The Rape of Nanking," and sufficiently details her work on her next project -- the "Bataan Death March" -- for which she was making taped interviews when she fell ill and ultimately committed suicide.

It therefore accomplishes two purposes which need not be viewed as separate: providing insight into Iris Chang and her work on the history of the massacre, and in a sense ensuring that her work is not forgot by presenting that history, and the evidence she gathered, in her behalf.

To correct the other two reviewers: in addition to her parents, her editor, and survivors, her husband is in fact interviewed.

I agree that the song's lyrics can cause the viewer to wince. But the film is a powerful indictment and remembrance of the massacre, and a moving portrait of a person of measureless compassion who knew the worth of human dignity, even as it is probable that she was ultimately also a victim of the very horror she courageously brought to the attention of a forgetful world. That she must not be forgot is underscored by the fact that there is a statue honoring her at the memorial to the victims of the massacre in Nanjing.