Product Details

• Actors: Gao Yuanyuan, Liu Ye, Fan Wei, Hideo Nakaizumi, Yuko Miyamoto
• Directors: Lu Chuan
• Format: Black & White, Dolby, Subtitled, Import
• Language: Mandarin Chinese
• Subtitles: Cantonese, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Mega Stars
• DVD Release Date: November 17, 2009
• Run Time: 135 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002UOKXNS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,051 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Title: City of Life and Death Blu-Ray Starring: Liu Ye (Curse Of The Golden Flower), Fan Wei, Gao Yuan Yuan, Nakaizumi Hideo, John Paisley Region A - Ensure that your Blu-Ray player plays Region A discs Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin Subtitles: English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese Audio: 7.1, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital 5.1 Running Time: 135 minutes Format: NTSC (Please ensure your BD player is compatible) Synopsis China, December 1937. The country is at war with Japan. Beijing and Shanghai have already fallen. Japanese troops arrive at the doors of the capital, Nanjing. Following weeks of bombardment, local and foreign officials have fled the city in ruins. Lu, a charismatic Chinese General intensely determined to repel the enemy, leads his men in defence of their capital, street by street. They have little ammunition left as they face the Japanese tanks, but they refuse to leave. Mr. TANG is guardedly optimistic as he and his family flee to the International Safety Zone, where a growing number of Chinese civilians find shelter. Operated by the city's few remaining foreigners, the zone has become a large refugee camp. Miss JIANG, a young Chinese teacher with a strong sense of mission, coordinates life in this crowded enclave, attempting to protect as many individuals as she can.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Rape of Nanking, March 22, 2010

By 

Keris Nine - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: City of Life and Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!) (DVD)

As far as definitions for Hell on Earth go, the assault on the Chinese city of Nanking by the invading Japanese army in 1937 is certainly on a par with the horrors of the worst of the Nazi concentration camps. Ruthlessly and systematically wiping out of the Chinese army soldiers defending the town, the abuse, torture and mass execution of citizens and the notorious rape and murder of the city's women engaged as "comfort women" for the Japanese troops is one of the darkest moments in the history of modern war crimes.

It's a harrowing subject with material of such a degree of obscenity that, despite it being a popular subject for film with several documentary attempts and another film about John Rabe released around the same time as this one, it's a difficult one to approach within the limits of what a conventional war movie can show. Appropriately then, Lu Chuan adopts a style and approach similar to Steven Spielberg in Schindler's List, shooting in eye-catching widescreen black-and-white, taking in multiple viewpoints that chart the complete breakdown of any recognisable human qualities into barbarism on an unimaginable scale. Initially, there's the view from the Chinese soldiers defending the city, as well as the view from a young Japanese officer Kadokawa. The city taken, the view switches to the "Safe Zone" (which in reality is far from safe at all) established by the Nazi representative in the town John Rabe, seen mainly from the perspective of his Chinese assistant Mr Tang, his wife and family.

City of Life and Death is an exceptionally well-made film, a true war epic, although, like Schindler's List, it could also be accused of being much too attractively photographed in glossy black-and-white, effectively glamorising a subject that should simply be unwatchable. It's hard to imagine however how else a film about the Rape of Nanking could be made. What matters is how honestly and effectively the film approaches the subject and the historical reality, and while it spares us graphic detail of the worst abuses, the full mounting horror of what occurred and the impact it must have had on individuals caught up within it is unquestionably fully felt. A powerful and moving film then and essential viewing, but like Schindler's List, perhaps not one you'd want to come back to watch very often.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Life is more difficult than death", June 22, 2010

By 

trashcanman (Hanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: City of Life and Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!) (DVD)

So once again the god of Asian cinema has shined upon me and delivered something new to my doorstep. While admittedly, I'm often hesitant to embrace the genre of film I refer to as "soul-scorchers" since they tend to revel in a combination of realistic atrocity and overwrought sentimentality that I find manipulative and distasteful, I am still of the opinion that one must partake of them from time to time if only to be reminded just what your fellow man is capable of. I found "City of Life and Death" to be an effective, yet somehow disconnected chronicling of some of the events of the second World War in Asia. I would in fact, consider this mandatory viewing to those whose knowledge of WWII only reflects the Eurocentric viewpoint we were all taught in school. Europe and America were not the only countries involved in this worldwide atrocity that has bafflingly been referred to in our country as "the greatest generation". Apparently, body counts is the way we are keeping score on that. I'm personally glad my generation is lagging a bit. The film covers the Japanese conquest and subsequent tyrannical reign in the Chinese capitol of Nanjing, where the story is told from several viewpoints, all sympathetic, and often opposing.

I'm not quite sure what people will make of this one. While it certainly avoids the overt sentimentality of your typical Hollywood stuff, the actors all give strong emotional performances. But the lack of a prominent score removes much of the manipulative elements and the filmmaker simply lets the black-and-white imagery and the trials of the characters speak for themselves only occasionally filling otherwise silent scenes with an unaccompanied piano or violin. At times it feels as though punches are being pulled, but at the same time the director obviously felt strongly about presenting the events in an entirely neutral manner and allowing the viewer to make of it what they will. It almost feels like more of a historical documentary at times in that aspect. The battle that happens early in the film is extremely well put together and very clearly illustrates the events and strategies at play where scenes often fall into chaos and rely on violence and explosions. I was very impressed with the realism. When the Japanese armor arrives, the Chinese have only two options: scatter or surrender. Those who surrender are all penned up like cattle down to the little boy who was only fetching ammo. As they are marched out of their pen, you certainly get a bad feeling, but when you see they are being marched to the sea, my blood ran cold as I tried to imagine what the victims must have felt like knowing the inevitable. Some are buried while still alive after being cut down like wheat by a machine gun scythe, but most are simply left where they lie. Too much trouble to bury all of the roughly 300,000 who were massacred during this ordeal.

Now ask yourself this: how do yo know when things literally can not get any worse? How about when a nazi is the voice of reason and compassion? How cruel does an occupying force have to be to make a god-cursed nazi cry? Watch the film and find out. After most of the troops are disposed of, the Japanese army spares no expense brutally hunting down any possible survivors, even barging into hospitals and shooting the wounded in their beds. But it's the abominable practice of rounding up "comfort women" that finally makes the sympathetic German overseer of the international "safe zone" set up to offer shelter for refugees crack. Mothers, sisters, and daughters all forced to prostitute themselves to the army who slaughtered their friends and family and destroyed their homes. These women literally serviced one soldier after another until they died hoping that their sacrifice would prevent the army from slaughtering the remainder of their people. Now, let it be noted that Japan has denied the existence of these practices. And let me add that only the lowest of the lowest scum would deny an act that has literally thousands of living witnesses. What's that? You say rape and genocide are old news? You want more personal violence? Well how about a Japanese soldier tossing a small child out of a window a few stories off the ground while the parents look on? Something for everybody here.

Many of the characters in City of Life and Death are based on actual people and their historical accounts of the events of the Nanking Massacre. One, at least, is still alive to tell the story. I wouldn't get attached to most of the cast, though. There's a whole lot of death in this city and not so much life. Plenty of character development to go around, though. The German, Chinese, and Japanese viewpoints are all presented admirably, heroic sacrifices are made, and one prominent character makes it out to the other side only to decide he cannot live with what he's seen. Powerful stuff all around. There are also some very interesting moments that stand out. I was particularly fond of the Japanese victory parade sequence. The barbaric garishness of these troops dancing in unison through the rubble-filled streets of the city they emptied with their brutality is both a fascinating look at the culture and a black irony that borders on the comedic. The tragedy of a scene where the Japanese try their hand at benevolence by allowing a wagon of condemned men a chance to be rescued by their sobbing family members is almost palpable. The women are told that they may only take one man each, else they will be shot. So if your father and husband are both on the wagon, better make the choice, ladies.

City of Life and Death can't exactly be called an entertaining film, but it is a fantastic historical portrayal of some of the horrors of the second World War in Asia. If you were wondering why Japan isn't allowed to keep an army to this day, this film may answer that question for you. Some viewers may feel a bit disconnected from the events due to the film's unusual style, but that's all part of the extremely objective viewpoint fostered throughout by the director, Lu Chuan. You are simply there to observe the trials and tribulations as they happened and are not nudged to shed tears by sappy music or excessively dramatic shots and shoe-horned romance. That is both the film's strong and weak point. If they wished it, it could have been a much more horrific film to shake you to your very soul. But as it is, it is a fairly sterile telling of a few of the atrocities visited upon the people of a single city in China while the world looked the other way. And it does a great job of it. The cast and crew were extremely brave and Chuan suffered quite a bit to get the film made with resistance from both the Chinese people (who objected to the balanced POV), and the Japanese actors he attempted to garner for the soldier roles. Most prominent Japanese actors refused and some of those who accepted reportedly suffered nervous breakdowns on the set after realizing just what their people had done and having to re-enact the deeds. But the fact that neither side seems to be happy with the finished product means the filmmaker did his job and effectively portrayed the reality of the situation and didn't get hung up on emotional exploitation. Big thumbs up on that.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing but gripping viewing, December 6, 2010

By 

Jared M (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Life and Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!) (DVD)

Although widely reported at the time, the events in Nanking during the period 1937 to 1938 was really only brought to popular awareness in the Western world with the 1997 publication of Iris Chang's book "The Rape of Nanking". Since then, there have been a number of film and television productions that have been based on the fall of Nanking. "City of Life and Death" is a recent entrant in the Nanking genre, but it is probably one of the best due to its high production values.

The plot is based around the fall of Nanking, and the subsequent atrocities, as seen through the eyes of Kadokawa, a young Japanese soldier experiencing the horrors of war, and the evils perpetuated by his comrades as the populace is ruthlessly suppressed by the Japanese. Sections of the narrative are provided from the Chinese and Western participants, notably John Rabe, the "Good Nazi", who oversaw the "Safety Zone" together with his Chinese assistant Mr. Tang and his wife. These individuals attempted to protect a number of civilians as well as wounded KMT soldiers by harbouring them in the Safety Zone, even though the Japanese regularly ignored the neutrality of the Safety Zone.

Filmed entirely in black and white, "City of Life and Death" had a decent production budget of around $12,000,000 according to Imdb.com, and this is clearly apparent in the battle sequences. The main battle sequence is simply stunning and will invite comparisons to the final battle sequence in "Saving Private Ryan". There appear to be a staggering number of extras as well, and this adds significant impact to the crowd scenes - notably the opening sequence in which Chinese militia attempt to break out of Nanking while the regular KMT soldiers attempt to keep them within the city. The editing and cinematography is top drawer stuff. A minor grizzle is that at certain points in the narrative, postcards written in english are used as fact/caption cards to update the viewer on background events - because these are already in english, the captions are only translated into Chinese subtitles. However, the english cursive script on the postcards is actually quite hard to read in the time available.

Given it is a Chinese film, it was interesting to see that the key role of Kadokawa is sympathetically treated, and the film's director was critised for this in mainland China. Japanese actor Hideo Nakaizumi gives a compelling performance as Kadokawa, and one gets a sense of the character's moral dilemmas. His compatriot Ryu Kohata puts in a chilling turn as Kadokawa's superior officer. Ye Liu (from "Curse of the Golden Flower") is steady in his role as a KMT soldier, and is overshadowed by the female members of the cast, particularly Jiang Yiyan as Mrs. Jiang.

"City of Life and Death" is not easy viewing; the battle sequences are intense, and the atrocities are realistically depicted (scenes of rape are treated with relative restraint). It is most certainly grim to watch. Nonetheless, "City of Life and Death" is one of those rare "must see" movies, in the vein of Schlinder's List, for its tragic portrayal of the events of 1937, in Nanking.