City of Life and Death

2009 [CHINESE]

Action / Drama / History / War

19
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 86% · 53 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 86% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.7/10 10 12389 12.4K

sino japanese war war crimes mass murder war victim second sino-japanese war (1937-45) massacre

Plot summary

In 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army has just captured Nanjing, then-capital of the Republic of China. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, a six week period wherein tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed.

Director

Chuan Lu Photo
Chuan Lu

Top cast

Yûko Miyamoto Photo
Yûko Miyamoto as Yuriko
Ye Liu Photo
Ye Liu as Lu Jianxiong
Ryu Kohata Photo
Ryu Kohata as Officer Osamu Ida
Wang Kai Photo
Wang Kai as Tang family nanny
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.21 GB
1280*576
Chinese 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 14 min
Seeds 3
2.49 GB
1920*864
Chinese 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 14 min
Seeds 18

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ma-cortes 8 / 10

Gripping and intense film depicting terrible deeds during Japonese invasion in Nanjing

Big budget WWII epic , it happens when China is invaded by Japan at the onset of war and finds Japanese army surrounding city of Nanjing (1937). After that, at the city take place violations, mutilations, and massacres. Some prisoners are interred in a prison camp but later they are led to fire squad, scaffold and alive burying.Director deglamorizes war showing true horror and terrible events. It's a staggering evocation of the Chinese Holocausto in Nanjing , as the atrocities are depicted matter of factly as by-product of sheer Japanese evil. The opening twenty minutes graphic depiction the facing off is , on its own, magnificent. The film-maker Chuan Lu is nicknamed the Chinese Steven Spielberg for his spectacular and impressive productions. As the moving beginning results to be as stirring as ¨Saving private Ryan¨ , the developing of the movie regarding invasion China is partially similar to ¨Empire of the sun¨ and suffering of Chinese people bear remarkable resemblance to Jews of ¨Schlindler list¨ .The starring, Nakaizumi, and the rest of the cast are excellent , as the movie is powered by splendid performances in charge of Chinese and Japanese actors who during filming suffered some inevitable discussions. Filmed in perfect black and white by cameraman Cao Yu , reflecting appropriately the grim and rotten environment .Lu Chuan makes a breathtaking work which directs spectacularly with groundbreaking scenes in a heartbreaking context.Chuan dedicated about three years joining information and interviewing experts for that scenes would adequate to reality of events. This masterpiece finally garnered the world attention and respect that the story deserves, winning several prizes in various International Festivals.
Reviewed by yuseric 9 / 10

Emotional Ride

I'm an overseas Chinese, growing up listening to my grandfather telling the stories about how bad the Japanese Military treating the Chinese people in WWII.I saw some of the movies made back in the 80's/90's about the rape of Nanking, to me they are exploitation movies and never affected me or leave me with profound experience. I'm actually disgusted with them making such low movies. Also most of the documentaries I watched never really does anything.I watched Nanjing! Nanjing! - City of Life and Death tonight and it really drained me emotionally, the movie really depicting the real face/real ugly side of war, where the victims are always the people, doesn't matter what wars or which countries.The movie itself doesn't really do the finger pointing like other movies, but it just showing, in my opinion, the fair view on what was going on back then without taking sides.And it's show one thing, the most profound thing to me, that The Chinese people can endure a lot of hardship that life throw at them and that's possibly why their cultures and civilization last for a long time.Highly recommended for people who never really know this part of history, as Chinese I know about it, but for lot of my westerners friends who never been to China, they only heard about it but didn't realize how crazy it was and how significant is this event for the Chinese people. Most people know the atrocities the Nazis did in WWII, but not the Japanese Atrocities.Watched it and let's pray there won't be WW III or any wars at all actually.
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