City Of Life And Death

Went to watch 南京！南京！ or City Of Life And Death with HL and Vim.

It was a Chinese film about the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. For most movies I always know what to expect but with Nanjing I was being experimental and had wanted to watch a China made movie ever since I returned from Mainland.

My impression with the Rape Of Nanjing was not at all sufficient. I knew that it was the Chinese holoclaust where many chinese were brutually murdered or raped by Japanese. But beyond that I know not what to expect other than the extent of a documentary film.

The movie was presented in black and white. Grim and dastardly. The Nanjing soldiers despite putting up a brave resistance had lost China's capital to the better equipped Japs. Liu Ye, the only Chinese actor I knew in the movie was brilliant until the very end. Liu Ye had minimal dialogue and had expressed himself impressively with his eyes. Until his very end, which was fifteen minutes into the show.

Yes, the star of the movie, the ironman Liu Ye himself perished fifteen minutes into the movie.

The fall of Nanjing then unfolded the tragedy of hopesfall and pain. All men in Nanjing are rounded up and machine gunned, burned or buried alive.

What was left was women and children, a lawless capital with restless Jap soldiers with endless ammunitions.
 
Ironically, the only haven that stands between them was a Nazis businessman Rabe who founded a safe house. Like savage beasts, when the Japs wanted to expand their comfort women population, they cunningly devise all sorts of methods to gain entry into the safe house.

The movie was infested with gore, merciless slaughter, rape, rape and more rape. Streets of Nanjing were littered with corpses, metal barbs and singings of the victorious Japanese soldiers. Children were thrown off buildings to coerce folks into submission. Naked corpses of comfort women piled up \and discarded past the lines of eager Jap soldiers waiting to have their ways with the remaining battered and near death comfort women. Some women were raped to death, while others went insane and were shot like dogs. This is a movie of intense fear and hopeslessness.

Perhaps the film's subtle message was the hope of life and the courage of self sacrifice, but those values were overshadowed by its horror and japanese atrocities. To me, it is like watching Hostel or Saw, but worse. In torture porn, it's quite individually directed. The fear is contained compared to Nanjing's travesty of death and death of your loved ones.

This film is suitable for the older generation of grandpas and grandmas who cursed whenever a Jap drama came on telly and blew up whenever their forgiving grandchildren who don't give a fuck about history, don't have roots and will grow up to be dipshits.

This movie is also suitable for all Japanese people who shunned the atrocities that their forefathers did and wondered why we Chinese hated them so much. They should watch it and feel the shame that they should be having.