City of Life and Death

It's important that the world knows what the Japanese did in Nanking, of all their many brutal crimes this was biggest.However...I just couldn't stomach 2 hours of mass murder & rape and more to the point it's dull.A poor film doesn't become a good one purely because it's trying to say something important.

Hypocritical, pretentious, and empty. The attempt to cater for west moral was so obvious but ended up being filled with stereotyped images and gaudy scenes. The utilisation of nationalism was so stupidly commercialised but pretend to be noble. This arrogant attitude showed clearly in the movie was really disgusting.

A harrowing and unflinching chronicle of human suffering, looking specifically into the atrocities committed in Nanking brought to vivid, compelling detail by Lu Chuan's painstakingly realistic but also poetic style.

Lavishly produced and very aesthetic, with an extraordinarily loose narrative style. Unfortunately all this comes at the expense of literary depth.

In black and white, because... well Schindler's List was in black and white! It's artistic! A passable war dramatization, not helped by the melodramatic acting reminiscent of early sound films of the 30s. Characters could have been developed more, too. The main villain doesn't get his comeuppance. Meh.

A strong chronicle of a little depicted tragedy. Chinese movies have a habit of appearing overly patriotic and portraying the Japanese as evil caricatures, but this one was unbiased enough to cause some serious public outcry in China, I applaud the decision. For all it's merit, there are some poor decisions, the black and white, for one, and a lack of cohesion. The movie jumps around from person to person all with unique stories, making it feel like a list of atrocities, rather than a film.

I wish the dubbing of the characters who spoke English was better.

.....and rape. Lots of rape. A few key scenes strain the believability that this generally succeeds at.

An excellent and overall well-balanced dramatization of the Nanjing massacre. Should be required viewing in Japanese schools.

Harrowing. Yet it doesn't really attempt to say much more than 'rape is incredibly disturbing' and 'war is bad, obviously'. Also, because most of the scenes were so harrowing, I attempted to make light of the film, and noted that the Japanese celebration of the 'conquest of Nanking' was similar to a dance from West Side Story...it's effective film making, for sure, try to stop your jaw hitting the floor at most of the 'set pieces', but ultimately, it's nothing you haven't seen before, or want to

Great cinematography and effective.

"The 1937-38 massacres and rapes in conquered Nanking are dramatized with flawed but unflinching horror in this grim, epic lament." - Bill Weber

Chock full of violence and depravity. A tamed version of what really happened there.

Disturbing, but hollow. Time would be better spent watching a true documentary of events

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

Emotionally draining.