The Tokyo Trial

The film is about the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, set up after the Second World War. War crimes were tried in that case, which opened after Japan’s surrender. The account moves from the point of view of the Chinese judge Mei Ju-ao. The screenplay rests on more than a year of work in the archives. The courtroom scenes were rebuilt in Chinese, in English and in Japanese. Actors from eleven countries took part in the production. The film was shown in cinemas in China and at about a hundred universities. A court trying to establish its own legitimacy is the real subject. Damian Lau and Kenneth Tsang appear in Gao Qunshu’s hundred and eleven minute Chinese film, completed in 2006.