In December 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army laid siege to the Chinese capital of Nanjing, killing as many as 300,000 citizens, the details of which Japan and China dispute to this day. CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH is a bold re-creation of these events, told with startling humanism through the eyes of both victims and occupiers. Delving into the psychology of the Chinese struggle to survive and a Japanese soldier's struggle with his conscience, Lu's film is ultimately an indictment against the cruelty
of war.
Lu Chuan makes this feature film soar by telling the story both through the eyes of the Japanese occupiers and the defenseless Chinese civilians in the ancient capital. It makes the savagery all the more senseless.
...among the greatest war films ever made. Rich in humanist themes and absolutely unflinching in its depiction of the moral chaos and physical violence of war.
Exquisitely shot in black and white, with a rare attention to detail and dramatic complexity, "City of Life and Death" is a timelessly great film that commands our collective attention.
In almost any form, the story of the Nanking atrocities can leave you profoundly shaken. But Lu Chuan's version may be the most compassionate and emotionally satisfying treatment to date.
Chinese filmmaker Chuan Lu has tackled a vast and ambitious subject in City of Life and Death. I knew very little about the siege on Nanjing (or Nanking, as Westerners have long referred to it) in 1937; I feel as if I understand it now, in all...
Despite a puzzling, ridiculously benign view of Japanese sex slaves, this is a brutal depiction of the bestiality of the Japanese Rape of Nanjing that is long overdue.
There is no way to soften the events presented, even though Lu spares us some documented atrocities that are as bad or worse than what we see. The result is both moving and exhausting.
Seeing through the eyes of a confused japanese soldier, and several chinese civilians, City of Life and Death knows how to balance all the visual information that provides to the audience. The exploration of the japanese side could have been better. Nothing groundbreaking here, but still quite engaging to watch.
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