'City of Life and Death' is a Chinese film that depicts the 1937 Battle of Nanking and the subsequent atrocities that were inflicted on the Chinese population by the Imperial Japanese Army. At that time Nanking was the capital city of the Republic of China.
During the Japanese occupation of Nanking it is estimated that up to 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were murdered and up to 80,000 women were raped. It is generally accepted by historians that these crimes were authorised at the highest levels within the Japanese government and armed forces.
The scenes depicting the initial battle for Nanking are as realistic and gripping as anything that Steven Spielberg has produced. The scenes of mass execution following the battle are horrific.
Most of the film takes place within the Nanking Safety Zone which was set up by Westerners to provide a refuge for Chinese women and children, old men, and wounded soldiers. The safety zone is raided numerous times by gangs of Japanese soldiers for the purposes of raping the female occupants. Anyone who goes to the assistance of these females is immediately executed.
To provide a modicum of balance not all of the Japanese soldiers are depicted as monsters. The main Japanese character, Sergeant Kadokawa, commits suicide at the end of the film because he cannot live with himself after what he and his comrades have done. "Life is more difficult than death" he says. I suspect that Kadokawa was in a very small minority and was introduced by director Lu Chuan to appease Japanese interests.
I found this film deeply disturbing, so disturbing in fact that I woke up later that night thinking about it.
For all of the flower arranging and polite tea ceremonies usually associated with the race that perpetrated the Nanking massacre, this film is a reminder that civilisation is a thin veneer that masks extreme barbarity.
Nigel.
During the Japanese occupation of Nanking it is estimated that up to 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were murdered and up to 80,000 women were raped. It is generally accepted by historians that these crimes were authorised at the highest levels within the Japanese government and armed forces.
The scenes depicting the initial battle for Nanking are as realistic and gripping as anything that Steven Spielberg has produced. The scenes of mass execution following the battle are horrific.
Most of the film takes place within the Nanking Safety Zone which was set up by Westerners to provide a refuge for Chinese women and children, old men, and wounded soldiers. The safety zone is raided numerous times by gangs of Japanese soldiers for the purposes of raping the female occupants. Anyone who goes to the assistance of these females is immediately executed.
To provide a modicum of balance not all of the Japanese soldiers are depicted as monsters. The main Japanese character, Sergeant Kadokawa, commits suicide at the end of the film because he cannot live with himself after what he and his comrades have done. "Life is more difficult than death" he says. I suspect that Kadokawa was in a very small minority and was introduced by director Lu Chuan to appease Japanese interests.
I found this film deeply disturbing, so disturbing in fact that I woke up later that night thinking about it.
For all of the flower arranging and polite tea ceremonies usually associated with the race that perpetrated the Nanking massacre, this film is a reminder that civilisation is a thin veneer that masks extreme barbarity.
Nigel.
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