Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

sergepesic There are so many horrors that people inflict upon the other, lesser, people in this world. Of course, to be able to do those atrocious things, you have to somehow dehumanize them or make them less then yourself. And it seems to work for so many inhabitants of this maddening planet. Average, exhausted person tries to block out all the things that don't fit their small, petty existence. We do not know which countries our leaders bombed in last 20 years. That doesn't make us participants in war crimes, but in the same time not every German or Japanese committed the atrocities on Jews or Chinese. They just averted their gaze from the disturbing or unpleasant. Without the passive onlookers, the monsters would be hiding in the sewers where they belong. Alas, courage is a rare commodity and heroes first scapegoats here and everywhere else .

badajoz-1 The film is a documentary-style retelling and visualisation of the events that made up the 'Rape of Nanking.' The city of Nanking was the Chinese capital in 1937, and was captured during the Sino-Japanese War by the Japanese. What followed was a well-observed series of atrocities committed by the conquerors against the native Chinese population. This movie looks predominantly at the fate that befell the refugees who gathered in an International Safe Zone, supposedly protected by international guarentees. The Japanese army systematically hunts down and murders Chinese army personnel, machine gunning or burning them alive - the imagery of such events is incredibly chilling and poignant. Then the occupiers start chipping away at the Zone, finally extracting women to become 'Comfort Women' for serial rape over three weeks by the Japanese army by threats. Nothing is portrayed too full frontal, but those who die on the job are slung onto carts without pity, thought or clothes! Yes, some of the images are extremely powerful and make 'Schindler's List' as a movie look more like a Teddy Bear's picnic ( not the subject matter, of course). Characters who are highlighted gradually succumb to death in one way or another in the randomised violence by those who have total power over others. One survives, care of one sympathetic Japanese soldier, who commits suicide for letting a boy go, and life is seen to go. Powerful and gripping - those who complain are just being pernickety. Because, of course it is only a partial view of what went on overall in Nanking in 1937 - let's face it we did not piles of emaciated bodies being buried with tractors in 'Schindler's List,' did we?

poe426 Having just recently subjected myself to the almost documentary-like horrors of the Russian film COME AND SEE (about as sobering an experience as can be had), I opted to push my luck and try CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH. I've seen a number of documentaries regarding Japan's invasion of China, so I knew what to expect (although I DIDN'T expect the opening scenes, which harked back to the gritty, hand-held carnage of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN). In fact, CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH is actually more than a little forgiving in some of its depictions: characters who may or may not have been as sympathetic to the "lesser beings" are given the benefit of the doubt (no doubt by way of presenting a more "balanced" view of rape and wholesale slaughter). (Note: in one documentary I saw, a recaptured prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp was hung for all to see and a note was pinned to his chest: "I'm back," it read. And you thought the Nazis had no sense of humor...)

Ben Larson The atrocities committed in Nanking, the capital of China, by the Japanese in 1937 and 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War is a source of anger and resentment today.All kinds of torture were visited upon the residents, including live burials, mutilation, "death by fire", "death by ice", and "death by dogs". A survivor testifies to a killing contest amongst a group of Japanese soldiers to determine who could kill the fastest. The rape that occurred during the massacre was one of the greatest mass rapes in world history. It is estimated that the number of women raped ranged from 20,000 to as many as 80,000, and women from all classes were raped, including Buddhist nuns. Furthermore, rape occurred in all locations and at all hours, and both very young and very old women were raped. Not even pregnant women were spared. It wasn't limited to women as some men were forced to commit incest—fathers to rape their own daughters, brothers their sisters, sons their mothers.Writer-director Chuan Lu and cinematographer Yu Cao joined to present a film that was stunning and mesmerizing. They say that war is hell, and they were certainly describing what went on here. One does not have to understand a word of Japanese or Chinese to follow what is going on.The pain was more than evident and the horror is indescribable.