2009 · war · drama · historical
City of Life and Death
Directed by Lu Chuan2h 12m2009
In 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army has just captured Nanjing, then-capital of the Republic of China. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, a six week period wherein tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed.
Our read: City of Life and Death (2009) reads as a heavy, steady, grounded war · drama · historical entry — extreme in intensity, epic-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Heavy, steady, extreme war / drama, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, epic, cold.
- heavy
- extreme
- bleak
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How City of Life and Death feels to watch.
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