MovieChat Forums > John Rabe (2009) Discussion > Dr Rosen, a paedophile ?

Dr Rosen, a paedophile ?

posted 14 years ago by triumph-tsx
8 replies | jump to latest

The scence where the Japanese officer orders the school girls to strip to see if one is really the 'man' they're after....well, obviously he ordered out his soldiers from the room and obviously, the headmistress remained as a chaperone but what was Dr Rosen doing there still ?!

There was no reason for him to be there and he too should have left instead of ogling a roomfull of naked Chinese schoolgirls.

He then takes an interest in one who has a crush in him and seemingly ends up in a relationship with her. He'd be rightly locked up nowadays ! What a perve !

[–] buttons_rock 14 years ago

When the Japanese troops left the room, I kinda thought that the headmistress would ask Dr. Rosen to step out too. But then he didn't and I was like O-0 get out, man....But then on further contemplation I think he was there to make sure nothing funny happened. Sure there was the headmistress but if the Japanese officer decided to fool around with one of the girls who's to say that the headmistress would be able to stop it? I think he felt it was his duty to make sure that he would be ready to step in and defend the ladies if anything happened.

And as for the schoolgirl? I don't think she's as young as we perceive her to be. She'd be about 16-18. And sure that is young but there was a similar theme in the movie "The Education" with a grown guy in a relationship with a school girl. I dunno how I feel about that though...it's weird. Although, maybe he thought it was his responsibility to take care of her and her brother?

[–] stephencray 14 years ago

I agree, I doubt that Rosen wanted to the leave them alone with the officer, as scared as he was.

PAX...

[–] sfviewer123 14 years ago

Plus he's a doctor, supposedly he would be able to act appropriately in those situations (and may have seen some of the girls in similar states in the hospital if he had treated them).

P.S. Paedophile means having sex with a pre-pubescent underage person, the term you probably meant is hebephile (there is similar misunderstanding with the Catholic priest scandal.)

[–] kenneglds 14 years ago

To the op-You seem to have missed what was going on in the scene.

The girls were in great danger. (particularly the girl the Japanese soldiers were after). Dr. Rosen stayed in the room because he felt the need to be there to try to protect the girls, if he could. It was not about him ogling naked school girls.

And protecting the girls would have been hard for him to do if he was outside the room, and thus didn't know what was going on.

This was not a time to worry about propriety or acting "appropriately".

Those were the last things anybody should have been concerned about at that time.

And as for his attraction to the girl, she looked older than 16 to me. And considering that this was a college, maybe she was.

[–] Kawada_Kira 12 years ago

Like others said, I don't think the girls were really that young. Late teens, early 20s. And Rosen stayed to help make sure the Japanese officer didn't cross any lines. Do you honestly think that he could possibly have had anything sexual on his mind in the life-and-death situation they were in in that moment? The guy was thinking about how many corpses he was probably going to have to deal with in a few minutes, not about looking at naked girls.

God, people are just unbelievable these days. Sometimes I criticize how dumbed-down Hollywood films have become, but you know, maybe most people don't deserve any better because they can't understand anything more complicated than the crap Hollywood spoon-feeds them.

Grow the hell up. Not everything is about sex.

"When a man tells you he got rich through hard work, ask him: Whose?"
- Rousseau

[–] CoSMiGoNoN 12 years ago

the girls are all post-pubescent, thus he's not a pedophile.

[–] hartofavalon 10 years ago

Really? You seem to have missed the entire point of the scene.

If you watch Rosen's body language, you can see he's very uncomfortable. He first takes off his hat as a sign of respect to the women, he is shocked when the Japanese officer demands they strip, and he noticeably averts his eyes when they're naked before him.

And I think he stays not only to help Ms. Dupres in case anything goes wrong, but also because he's the diplomat working for the German Foreign Office. His sole reason for being in Nanking in the first place is to be the key negotiator between all representatives of foreign embassies - hence, to try to make the Japanese officer see reason.

[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 6 years ago

Aside from everything the other posters have mentioned, the actor Daniel Bruhl is only 2 years older than the actress playing Langshu. Plus as a woman's college, the girls were most likely late teens-early 20s, only a few years younger than Rosen.