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12/06/05
Shanghai Ghetto (2002)
81 %
Reviews Counted: 43 Fresh: 35 Rotten:8 Average Rating: 6.8/10
Consensus:
Explores a little-known piece of Holocaust history, weaving together stories of overlapping cultures and their coexistence under the pretext of a war to create a touching and unusual narrative.
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Synopsis: In the late 1930s thousands of German Jews, fearing for their lives under Nazi rule and unable to secure entrance visas to other countries, found refuge in the Japanese-occupied city of Shanghai. Destitute, hungry, and thrust into a strange environment, they made the best of their situation... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Starring: Harold Janklowicz, Alfred Kohn, Betty Grebenschikoff, Sigmund Tobias, Evelyn Pike Rubin
Director: Dana Janklowicz-Mann, Amir Mann
Producer: Dana Janklowicz-Mann, Amir Mann
Composer: Sujin Nam
Producer: Dana Janklowicz-Mann, Amir Mann
Composer: Sujin Nam
Reviews
A worthy educational reminder of how many strange stories grew out of the Holocaust experience.
01/01/04
A sad but inspirational story that needs to be told and should be seen.
09/06/03
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09/05/03
It's too bad that the picture lacks a clear narrative thread and, ultimately, much of a point besides telling a weird little story in an overly familiar sort of way.
08/20/03
Even if it offers nothing cinematic, the story alone is important, and interesting, enough to warrant seeing.
07/19/03
Shanghai Ghetto should be applauded for finding a new angle on a tireless story, but you might want to think twice before booking passage.
06/01/03
It's incredible the number of stories the Holocaust has generated. Just when you think that every possible angle has been exhausted by documentarians, another new film emerges with yet another remarkable yet shockingly little-known perspective.
05/30/03
The mix of such fascinating events with the memories of those who endured them is undeniably compelling, even if much of what's described here has been described for decades.
05/23/03
Fairly artless even by the standards of talking-heads documentaries, Shanghai Ghetto still proves fascinating.
05/23/03
The film is a worthy addition to the vast catalogue of Holocaust cinema but too narrowly focused on the experiences of the refugees, to the exclusion of Chinese and Japanese sources.
05/22/03
Shanghai Ghetto, much stranger than any fiction, brings this unknown slice of history affectingly to life.
05/16/03
The film is delicately narrated by Martin Landau and directed with sensitivity and skill by Dana Janklowicz-Mann.
05/15/03
The strength of the film comes not from any cinematic razzle-dazzle but from its recovery of an historical episode that, in the simple telling, proves simultaneously harrowing and uplifting.
03/31/03
This may not have the dramatic gut-wrenching impact of other Holocaust films, but it's a compelling story, mainly because of the way it's told by the people who were there.
03/28/03
The problem is the needlessly poor quality of its archival prints and film footage. The images lack contrast, are murky and are frequently too dark to be decipherable.
02/23/03
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