City of Life and Death - 南京!南京!

City of Life and Death (南京!南京!) is a 2009 film out of China.

The movie is broken into 3 story arcs with a few sub stories. The first arc is the invasion of Nanjing by the Japanese. Liu Xe and his crew are trying to protect the city and eventually get captured.

The second story is Gao Yuan Yuan and the safety zone. Their struggle to keep the Japanese soldiers at bay.

The final arc is Kadokawa's arc.

There also the Tang family arc that over laps arc 2 and 3.

The movie is based on the Nanking Massacre. It uses the historical context to present the 3-4 main story arcs. The film is also presented in black and white fashion.



I was rather disappointed in this movie. Maybe because I only just recently watched Nanking - 被遺忘的一九三七. I am not sure. But the movie was super slow and the stories didn't bring into context of the situation. I was quite disappointed the extended Japanese POV. I do not mind the sympathetic view. But the presentation was strange and didn't leave me feeling that there were others.

This movie stays on the "entertainment" side of things and does not focus on presenting an historical account. It is assuming you know the back story.