Synopsis: The story revolves around only a few characters, both Chinese and Japanese, who each play equally important roles in the narrative and whose arcs converge, run parallel or sometimes just barely touch. Young Japanese officer Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi) has arrived in occupied Nanjing filled with goodwill and great intentions. Sadly, his untainted ideals are destined to succumb to the brutality he witnesses in his fellow soldiers. He crosses paths with the young General Lu (Liu Ye), the courageous leader of an untamed unit of Chinese guerrilla fighters. We also encounter Tang (Fan Wei), a man who clings to a deluded certainty that he will be safe, since he is the assistant of John Rabe (John Paisley), a Schindler-style German who saves many civilians by hosting them in the international war-free zone. Miss Jiang (Gao Yuanyuan) is a brave young teacher, while the careworn Yuriko (Yuko Miyamoto) is a hardened Japanese “comfort woman” with whom Kadokawa falls hopelessly in love. [Synopsis courtesy of TIFF]
It has been a controversial path to theatrical release for Lu Chaun's "City of Life and Death." The film - which National Geographic picked up just prior to its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival - had been scheduled to make its theatrical debut at New York City's Film...
Read More »War movies produced by commercial film industries have a tendency to show any given conflict not as it is or was, but as the side footing the bill for the film would like for it have been. The essential moral irony of war — that acts that would be considered revoltingly inhumane if committed in the...
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