Lu Chuan's 'City of Life and Death'
In 1937 the Imperial Japanese Army began its invasion of China's capital city, Nanking, killing nearly 300,000 civilians and unarmed Chinese troops. The atrocity still casts dark shadows on diplomacy between China and Japan. Chinese director Lu Chuan ("The Missing Gun," "Kekexili: Mountain Patrol") has dared the shadow play of black and white cinematography in his 2009 film about the Rape of Nanking, "City of Life and Death."
300,000 defenseless people is a big body count argued over depending on where one's nationalism resides. Like the Holocaust during World War II, The Nanking Massacre has its share Japanese deniers. Lu Chuan's Chinese nationalism is by no means subdued, but his complex portrayal of Japanese soldiers has aroused cries of sympathizer from critics.
The massive 300,000 death toll is prominently displayed in the opening sequence. There are also nightmarish scenes where captured Chinese soldiers are lined up and massacred in waves from Japanese guns. Heads dangle like ornaments of ruin in Nanking's obliterated architecture; where chaos breeds merciless killing, rape, pillage and destruction. The brilliantly crafted battles sweep off the screen like hallucinations of iconic imagery and old photographs burned into conscious nightmares.
"City of Life and Death" is beautiful to watch cinematically, but its historical context makes for some unsettling graphic depictions. Not "Saving Private Ryan" unsettling or the fuzzy impressionism of Spielberg's "Schindler's List." Lu Chuan approaches Kubrick's senselessness of war in "Paths of Glory" or "Barry Lyndon," with an unnerving Asian ability to turn gratuitous violence into necessary art.
The film's start is a jarring interruption of expectations, like being dropped out of a time machine into a battle zone. It quickly gets its bearings through the faces it follows and begins to unravel graphic sparknotes of Japanese atrocities. As an American it's easy to connect with Chinese victims, because history tells us Japan is the bad guy. Yet, the faces of Japanese soldiers contort in emotional turmoil as their hands do the dirty work of political monsters. The simplicity of history's story of good vs. evil fades like lines in the sand beneath crashing waves.
"City of Life and Death" is largely a film about the machinations of war, where the gears of genocide grind without recourse. As much as it is a Chinese film about the massacre of Chinese civilians, the black and white line between evil and victim blurs in the glare of Japan's rising sun. This is perfectly symbolized in an ending sequence that basks in the power of a ceremonial parade once Japan conquered Nanking. Within the machinations, colors of humanity bleed out from the gears creating a complex splatter of survival within senselessness.
Review originally published on www.milehighcinema.com.
300,000 defenseless people is a big body count argued over depending on where one's nationalism resides. Like the Holocaust during World War II, The Nanking Massacre has its share Japanese deniers. Lu Chuan's Chinese nationalism is by no means subdued, but his complex portrayal of Japanese soldiers has aroused cries of sympathizer from critics.
The massive 300,000 death toll is prominently displayed in the opening sequence. There are also nightmarish scenes where captured Chinese soldiers are lined up and massacred in waves from Japanese guns. Heads dangle like ornaments of ruin in Nanking's obliterated architecture; where chaos breeds merciless killing, rape, pillage and destruction. The brilliantly crafted battles sweep off the screen like hallucinations of iconic imagery and old photographs burned into conscious nightmares.
"City of Life and Death" is beautiful to watch cinematically, but its historical context makes for some unsettling graphic depictions. Not "Saving Private Ryan" unsettling or the fuzzy impressionism of Spielberg's "Schindler's List." Lu Chuan approaches Kubrick's senselessness of war in "Paths of Glory" or "Barry Lyndon," with an unnerving Asian ability to turn gratuitous violence into necessary art.
The film's start is a jarring interruption of expectations, like being dropped out of a time machine into a battle zone. It quickly gets its bearings through the faces it follows and begins to unravel graphic sparknotes of Japanese atrocities. As an American it's easy to connect with Chinese victims, because history tells us Japan is the bad guy. Yet, the faces of Japanese soldiers contort in emotional turmoil as their hands do the dirty work of political monsters. The simplicity of history's story of good vs. evil fades like lines in the sand beneath crashing waves.
"City of Life and Death" is largely a film about the machinations of war, where the gears of genocide grind without recourse. As much as it is a Chinese film about the massacre of Chinese civilians, the black and white line between evil and victim blurs in the glare of Japan's rising sun. This is perfectly symbolized in an ending sequence that basks in the power of a ceremonial parade once Japan conquered Nanking. Within the machinations, colors of humanity bleed out from the gears creating a complex splatter of survival within senselessness.
Review originally published on www.milehighcinema.com.
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Published by Jason Cangialosi - Featured Contributor in Arts & Entertainment
The past meets future for Jason in a moment fused by creative experiences in music, writing, film and philosophy providing a nexus of the complex world to come. A freelance creator and ghostwriter of books,... View profile
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