Dong Jing shen pan

This film covers the trial of 28 Japanese war criminals after World War 2. We have the film "Judgement At Nuremburg" which covers German war criminals but nothing that covers this part of history. In this country we know very little about the atrocities committed by the Japanese on China. This is truly an engrossing film told from the perspective of the Chinese judge. After watching the special on the DVD of the making of the film I was impressed by how well the actors who played real historical character were made up to look like the actual characters counterparts.

I have a few criticisms. One is that the film was, in my opinion, too short. It could well have been 30 minutes or more longer and I would not have minded. Also, the clothing and the hair styles of the younger fictional characters were far too modern for that time. Finally, beware of the subtitles on the Hong Kong DVD. They are not good. However, much of the film is in English so it is not a complete disaster. And this is somewhat compensated for by great acting and direction.