China marks Japanese invasion with war-crime film

BEIJING, Sep 18 (Reuters) China marked the 75th anniversary of Japan's invasion today by providing half-price tickets to a movie about the trial of Japanese war criminals, state media reported.

Many Chinese harbour deep resentment of Japan's wartime past and what they see as its failure to own up to atrocities. Beijing estimates up to 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded by Japanese troops from 1931-1945.

Cinemas across the country and around 100 universities were offering the half-price ticket deal for ''Tokyo Trial'', a Chinese movie about court proceedings against 28 Japanese war criminals, Xinhua news agency said.

On September 18, 1931, Japanese troops began occupying northeast China, then known as Manchuria, in the Mukden (now Shenyang) Incident.

''The movie evokes patriotism and a pursuit of peace, rather than stirring hatred between China and Japan,'' Xinhua quoted Mao Shi'an, a Shanghai movie critic, as saying.

The low-budget film portrays Mei Ru'ao, a Chinese judge whose closing speech at the two-year trial secured death penalties for six of seven class-A war criminals for ''stealing Chinese resources and crimes against humanity'', Xinhua said.

Sino-Japanese relations have sunk to their lowest point in decades on a range of issues, such as a scramble for energy resources and territorial disputes.

But it is Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni war shrine, which honours war criminals among the war dead, that has caused the most outrage. China sees the shrine as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

In June, China released several nationalist films to mark the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party and a wave of war movies screened during last year's 60th anniversary of victory in World War Two.

Reuters PB DB1114