City of Life and Death

Movie: City of Life and Death

Genre: historical dramatization

Synopsis: This is a dramatization of the 1937 occupation of the Chinese city of Nanjing by the Japanese Imperial Army.  The word “occupy” is really to mild a word to describe what the Japanese did.  They rounded up all Chinese soldiers left in the city and summarily executed them.  They would tie people to light posts and leave them to die.  Chinese women were forced to work “Comfort Tents” for the Japanese – which is a polite way of saying they were forced to provide sex for any soldiers who wanted it.  The movie allows us to see things from the perspective of some Japanese soldiers – some of who were horrified by what they did – as well as through the eyes of the Chinese.

My two cents: I have read a lot about the Rape of Nanjing and was a little apprehensive that the movie would be overly graphic.  While the movie manages to make clear some of the atrocities committed by the Japanese, it does not over-due it.  I think it is important to see movies like this every now and then to remind us of just how savagely people have behaved in war.  I am not trying to be anti-Japanese, but the Japanese government has had a tendency to not own up to their actions in World War II.  If a war movie included the things the Japanese did to the Chinese – both soldiers and civilians – in Nanjing would it at least an “R” rating.  The lives of the Chinese in Nanjing were so desperate that, as one Japanese soldier put it “it is easier to die than to survive”.

Bottom line: I cannot say that I enjoyed this movie . . .  the events depicted were far too horrendous.  But I will say that I am glad I saw it.

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