'City of Life and Death' sheds light on the gray areas of war

The 2009 Chinese historical drama has a poetic English name, "City of Life and Death," but a repetitive Chinese name "Nanking! Nanking!" (or "Nanjing! Nanjing!") Either way, this movie which was written and directed by Lu Chuan attempts to shed light on the gray areas of war by looking at the lives of several people in the city of Nanjing when it fell to the Japanese Imperial Forces in 1937.
Filmed in black and white, the city of Nanjing has just been captured by the Japanese Imperial Army. We learn before the movie really begins at the camera shows us old postcards with dire short messages. From there, we are introduced to a Japanese soldier, Kadokawa Masao (Nakaisumi Hideo), who has been lying on his back looking at the sun. He joins other soldiers in a foxhole before a burning city. Tanks are moving toward the city's walls as the men wait.

Another postcard tells us that the Chinese National Revolutionary Army is in chaos. We are in the city and soldiers line up. Along with them are the city residents. Chinese soldiers want to leave the city, but their fellow Chinese soldiers attempt to prevent them from exiting. Here we meet Lieutenant Lu Jianxiong (Liu Ye) and Shunzi (Zhao Yisui) who attempt to convince some of their comrades to stay and defend the city. With the black and white format, it's not easy to differentiate the two sides and the horror of the bloodshed, burned bodies and mutilation is muted. We don't see the beauty of flight as in the strangely dream-like desperation of the girls at the beginning of "Flowers of War," and instead we see dust and confusion in the ruins of a city.

Much of the aftermath is from Kadokawa's perspective. He watches men being killed on the streets, women being led away. He sees corpses--some whole but not untouched as the naked woman and some mutilated. Heads hang like macabre celebratory decorations from the ruins. And yet those still living stand like a grain field. Leaving Kadokawa, we see things from an overhead view. From some vantage points, the people fill the streets in a seemingly unending fields of humanity. It is at this point we understand just how few men are in this victorious army. As the Japanese mow down people running into the sea, use them for bayonet practice, bury them alive or burn alive in a building set on fire, the military necessity of the actions is hinted at. What if, each Chinese person had been willing to sacrifice for the greater good?

With the men and soldiers defeated, the international witnesses who remain in Nanking such as John Rabe (John Paisley), Minnie Vautrin (Beverly Peckous)  and Durdin (Sam Voutas) set up a safety area where people seek refuge, food, water.  By safe, that's a matter of relativity and some of the people there include wounded soldiers. Japanese soldiers periodically intrude; they harass and assault the refugees, especially the women. The daughter of Rabe's secretary, Tang Tianxiang (Fan Wei) is thrown out the window to her death and his sister-in-law is raped (Yao Di). The Japanese demand 100 comfort women.

The camera shake, quick cuts and at times blurred motion produces a feeling of chaos. A whole range of human feeling is portrayed and unlike "Flowers of War" the rapes do not have a voyeuristic quality. The so-called good Nazi, John Rabe is shown protesting the brutality and regretfully finally leaving China, unable to take all the Chinese people he had known and worked with.

Not all the Japanese soldiers feel the weight of their horrific actions. Yet we see how the attitudes of the soldiers toward the Chinese women also carries over to their own women or perhaps it is the other way around. Kadokawa slowly becomes desensitized to the violence but recognizing the same dull resignation in the eyes of a Japanese woman that he has seen in the Chinese breaks the protective shell he has built.

"Life is more difficult than death," Kadokawa tells another Japanese soldier after he has allowed to Chinese prisoners to escape. In the end, photographs tell us the fate of each character by their name and their lifespan.

Although this film has been criticized for its sympathetic portrayal of a Japanese soldier in Kadokawa, the film gives a more balanced view of the Rape of Nanking and clearly shows the brutality of war and the heavy price both sides pay.

"City of Life and Death" is currently available on Netflix for instant streaming.