CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH tells the horrific story of the Rape of Nanking
CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH (Lu Chuna, 2009)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Through May 24
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
www.kinolorber.com
In December 1937, Japanese military forces invaded Nanking (now called Nanjing), occupying the Chinese capital for six weeks of unspeakable atrocities, resulting in hundreds of thousands of murders and tens of thousands of rapes. Based on survivor accounts on both sides of what became known as the Rape of Nanking (and the Nanking Massacre) in addition to postcards and journals from a group of international workers who furiously attempted to maintain a refugee Safety Zone, Lu Chuan’s City of Life and Death is a brutal, harrowing depiction of this controversial period, the exact details of which are still debated in Japan and China. Writer-director Lu (The Missing Gun, Kekexili: Mountain Patrol) holds nothing back as he tells the story through the eyes of several main characters: Miss Jiang (Gao Yuanyuan), the leader of the refugees who is desperately trying to protect the women and children; Mr. Tang (Fan Wei), a Chinese collaborator who believes he can negotiate with the Japanese army, headed by commander Ida (Ryu Kohata); Xiaodouzi (Bin Liu), a young child who silently watches the horror surrounding him; and Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi), seemingly the only Japanese soldier with a conscience. Evoking such war films as Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List and Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, City of Life and Death is an unsparing look at holocaust and genocide that walks the fine line between propaganda and cinema verité docudrama; Lu and cinematographer Cao Yu increase the feeling of reality by using handheld cameras and shooting the film in a stark black and white. Filmed over the course of 253 days and featuring some thirty thousand extras, City of Life and Death is a massive undertaking that unfolds on-screen in a series of unforgettable images and vignettes that will stay with viewers a long time, capturing a truly horrifying wartime tragedy that is not nearly as well known in the West as it should be.