Undeniably one of the most compelling films of the year, City of Life and Death shines a floodlight on the Rape of Nanking. The massacre depicted in the film took place over several long weeks as part of the Japanese invasion of China in December 1937. Guided by the privileged eye of acclaimed director Lu Chuan, who studied in Nanjing and spent almost four years researching the script, the film abandons the noisy fanfare of political propaganda and plunges into the disorienting chaos of war. Shot in gorgeous, majestic black and white, City of Life and Death is an epic and truly harrowing cinematic experience. Lu's camera records both the atrocity and the humanity of the soldiers, the strength and abnegation of the women, and finally the powerful drive to survive under the most extreme conditions. The effect is of a beautifully crafted piece of eye-witness filmmaking, as though an observer happened to be there on the battlefield with a 35mm camera.
The story revolves around only a few characters, both Chinese and Japanese, who each play equally important roles in the narrative and whose arcs converge, run parallel or sometimes just barely touch. Young Japanese officer Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi) has arrived in occupied Nanjing filled with goodwill and great intentions. Sadly, his untainted ideals are destined to succumb to the brutality he witnesses in his fellow soldiers. He crosses paths with the young General Lu (Liu Ye), the courageous leader of an untamed unit of Chinese guerrilla fighters. We also encounter Tang (Fan Wei), a man who clings to a deluded certainty that he will be safe, since he is the assistant of John Rabe (John Paisley), a Schindler-style German who saves many civilians by hosting them in the international war-free zone. Miss Jiang (Gao Yuanyuan) is a brave young teacher, while the careworn Yuriko (Yuko Miyamoto) is a hardened Japanese “comfort woman” with whom Kadokawa falls hopelessly in love.
The film reveals historic events unknown to Western audiences – such as when the women of Nanjing offered themselves into voluntary prostitution in hopes of quenching the Japanese soldiers' bloodthirsty rage – entrusting a well-known set of fears and emotions to startling images of arresting power.
Giovanna Fulvi
Lu Chuan graduated from the Beijing Film Academy and began his career as a screenwriter for a number of dramatic television series. His films include
Missing Gun (01), which screened at the Venice International Film Festival,
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (04) and
City of Life and Death (09).