Movies Reviews

City of Life and Death – Movie Review

By Ron Wilkinson May 18, 2011, 22:31 GMT

A dramatization of the rape of Nanking in 1937. ...more

Action and ultimate tragedy shot in spectacular black and white. One of the great war films.

At some forty years of age, emerging director/writer Chuan Lu is still in the early stage of his career. However, if this gripping epic of the rape of Nanking is any indication, Lu has an earthshaking future ahead.

After graduating from Beijing Film Academy in 1998, he became co-writer for the “Black Hole” TV series which went on to become a smash hit TV series in China. His directorial debut came in 2001 with “The Missing Gun” which garnered invitations to Cannes and Sundance festivals in 2002.

The tragedy of Nanking has been the subject of numerous films, especially as claims for damages to Chinese citizens have been acknowledged by Japan after years of hammering by the international community. One of the most heinous of the crimes committed by Japan was the imprisoning of Chinese women to serve as prostitutes for the Japanese military.

The arbitrary murder of both soldiers and civilians alike conducted by the Japanese troops probably was equaled by the Nazis in Europe, however there has been no equal to the rape, torture and murder of Chinese women under Japanese occupation. At least, not in modern history.

Like it or not, it is this sexual exploitation that makes up about half of the film. Be forewarned, the “R” rating for violence and sexual assault is for real.

The greatness of this movie lies in the realism that the writer/director is able to bring to the action-packed, high voltage war scenes as well as the routine, brutal and senseless killing that is part and parcel of man’s inhumanity to man. War is not about massive attacks and invasions or about key bridge demolitions.

The war in Nanking was about a priest walking up the street in a daze looking for survivors of his congregation as he is shot down in cold blood by a Japanese soldier. This is a war of military tribunals that make the most vicious mockery of justice one is driven to madness in trying to determine why they were even held.

Appropriately, the figure of John Rabe is presented as a key part of the bigger picture of Nanking. Rabe was a German business executive implementing modern, wide scale phone systems in Nanking when the invasion occurred. When he saw what was happening he single-handedly declared a safe-zone in the city that eventually saved about 200,000 people from rape, mutilation and death at the hands of the Japanese.

He only succeeded in this because he was a Nazi in good standing and had the temporary backing of the Nazi party who were valued allies of the Japanese. A version of his story is told in the great 2009 epic “John Rabe” directed by Florian Gallenberger and starring Steve Buscemi. Clouded by the fog of wear, Rabe’s story differs a bit between the two films, but there is no question he is one of the most fabled and respected heroes of WWII. It would be fun to see “John Rabe” before seeing this film.

Leads  Ye Liu, Yuanyuan Gao and Hideo Nakaizumi play the Chinese soldier, the young schoolteacher who becomes a leader of the women in the safe zone and the Japanese soldier. Like all great war films, this screenplay shows how war exacts its toll on both the victor and the vanquished.

The Japanese commander goes insane after hearing the last words of the condemned Mr. Tang (Wei Fan). As he is lead to the firing squad after his mock trial, Tan informs the commander than Tan’s wife is pregnant. He is conveying the message that Chinese have leaned after millennia of unsuccessful invasions of their country; there are simply too many of them to kill them all. All invasions of China are temporary. The invaders are swallowed up in time or repulsed.

Cinematographer Yu Cao has already won multiple awards in the USA and Asia for his spectacular work shooting this film. The camera work is a combination of hand-held and stationary camera and is shot completely in black and white.

The B&W format emphasizes the acting and the action and creates scene after scene of starkly contrasting images. The colors all fade to the gray of war. The mud, blood, flesh and smoke all combine into shades of gray and black as moral compasses go awry and all are subsumed by absolute power corrupting absolutely.

It is hard to see how this could have been done better. For those black and white film buffs out there, this is way it should be done. Perhaps hope for the future!

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Directed and Written by: Chuan Lu
Starring: Ye Liu, Wei Fan and Hideo Nakaizumi 
Release Date: May 11, 2011
MPAA: Rated R for wartime violence and atrocities including sexual assault, and for some sexuality and brief nudity
Runtime: 132 minutes
Country: China / Hong Kong
Language: Mandarin / English
Color: Black and White