UKReb
Command Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2007
- Messages
- 2,436
I don't know whether any of the Brit guys on here watched BBC4 last night but they showed the full uncut version of City of Life and Death.
Now I am a very keen cinephile but was completly unaware of this 2009 Chinese movie of the Nanking Massacre by the Japanese in 1937. Incredibly shot in B&W (and the better for it) beautifully acted by a multilingual cast which with all the extras must have been numbered in their thousands. The first act can be aligned with the opening sequence of Private Ryan as the Chinese army valiantly attempt to hold back the hordes of Japanese troops who have blown holes through Nanking's walls and are advancing through the streets of the city. These action scenes are really some of the best I have seen in a war film. Although compelling watching the second act of Chinese POWs who are shown no mercy by the Japanese and are executed in various horrific ways needs a steel constitution to watch it. A brutal film that depicts the brutal slaughter of thousands of innocent Chinese manages to end on a note of hope that smacks just a little of sanitisation when one considers the Japanese atrocities carried out in the Pacific just five years later.
Nevertheless I consider City of Life and Death to be an important movie-so much so I have just ordered it from Amazon for a snip of a price. Thoroughly recommended but not for your wives or girlfriends.
Reb
Now I am a very keen cinephile but was completly unaware of this 2009 Chinese movie of the Nanking Massacre by the Japanese in 1937. Incredibly shot in B&W (and the better for it) beautifully acted by a multilingual cast which with all the extras must have been numbered in their thousands. The first act can be aligned with the opening sequence of Private Ryan as the Chinese army valiantly attempt to hold back the hordes of Japanese troops who have blown holes through Nanking's walls and are advancing through the streets of the city. These action scenes are really some of the best I have seen in a war film. Although compelling watching the second act of Chinese POWs who are shown no mercy by the Japanese and are executed in various horrific ways needs a steel constitution to watch it. A brutal film that depicts the brutal slaughter of thousands of innocent Chinese manages to end on a note of hope that smacks just a little of sanitisation when one considers the Japanese atrocities carried out in the Pacific just five years later.
Nevertheless I consider City of Life and Death to be an important movie-so much so I have just ordered it from Amazon for a snip of a price. Thoroughly recommended but not for your wives or girlfriends.
Reb