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City of Life and Death (2009)

City of Life and Death (2009)

A harrowing, in-depth depiction of one of the world’s worst wartime atrocities

7.8

Movie

China, Hong Kong
English, German, Japanese
Drama, History, War
2009
LU CHUAN
Beverly Peckous, Fan Wei, Gao Yuanyuan
132 min

TLDR

God, I hope that the events of this film will never happen again.

What it's about

Nanjing, 1937. After Japanese forces occupy the former Chinese capital, a band of soldiers are sent to comb the city to kill the remaining combatants, and discover the terrified refugees hiding in the Nanjing Safety Zone.

The take

When we think about the atrocities committed during World War II, most people would remember the Holocaust, but this war was fought on multiple fronts, not just the West, and one of the most notorious incidents was the Rape of Nanjing. City of Life and Death depicts the massacre in black and white through various perspectives, which proved to be controversial considering some Japanese soldiers were depicted with sympathy, but it drives home the horror, the devastation, the terrible reality of the evil unfurled in the war. City of Life and Death is truly harrowing. The only consolation is that Nanjing thrives today as the Jiangsu province’s capital.

What stands out

I feel like it’s black and white only to spare us the red blood, but it’s still terribly harrowing to watch.

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