Genre: Drama, History, War
Actor: Beverly Peckous, Fan Wei, Gao Yuanyuan, Hideo Nakaizumi, Jiang Yiyan, John Paisley, Qin Lan, Ryu Kohata, Yao Di, Ye Liu, Yuko Miyamoto
Director: Lu Chuan
When we think about the atrocities committed during World War II, most people would remember the Holocaust, but this war was fought on multiple fronts, not just the West, and one of the most notorious incidents was the Rape of Nanjing. City of Life and Death depicts the massacre in black and white through various perspectives, which proved to be controversial considering some Japanese soldiers were depicted with sympathy, but it drives home the horror, the devastation, the terrible reality of the evil unfurled in the war. City of Life and Death is truly harrowing. The only consolation is that Nanjing thrives today as the Jiangsu province’s capital.