City of Life and Death

"Lu Chuan's remarkable and very moving film chronicles 'the rape of Nanking' by the invading Japanese army in 1937 as a series of telling vignettes. Nanjing (previously known as Nanking) was China's capital in the 1930s, until the government and army withdrew to inland areas at the end of 1937 as the invading Japanese Imperial Army advanced. Over the following three months, countless Nanjing civilians were massacred; there were also many sexual assaults and the city was laid to waste. To this day, some in Japan are in denial about what happened. There have been several earlier Chinese movies about 'the rape of Nanjing', all full of tears, indomitable bravery and nationalist rhetoric. Lu Chuan's stunning film is the long overdue corrective.