Chuan Lu, the talented director of 'City of Life and Death', was faced with a quandary in attempting to recount the "Rape of Nanking", perhaps the single greatest series of atrocities committed by the Japanese occupation force during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Just as the Jewish people always say "never forget" when it comes to remembering the Holocaust, the Chinese people also feel compelled to "never forget" and recall their own Holocaust. But Mr. Lu can't ignore the fact that the Japanese people of 1937 are not the same people of today, and his compulsion to reconcile the past and the present was perhaps his greatest challenge in writing the screenplay.
Ironically, Lu ended up receiving death threats, not from the Japanese but from some Chinese people who felt that he did not extract a sufficient enough "pound of flesh" as compensation for those who suffered during the Occupation. I can recall my own grandparents, who had relatives that were killed in the Holocaust, speak ever so harshly of the Germans and wanted nothing to do with any of them—even those born after the War. Because it was an emotional issue, they ignored the Biblical admonition found in Ezekiel 18:20: "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity". The same can be said for many Chinese people who are unable to forgive the Japanese, even though rationally it makes no sense that those born after the war are blamed for their parents or grandparents' crimes. While Director Lu's reconciliation strategy is a noble one, I'm not completely convinced the way he went about expressing his attitude of 'forgiveness' toward the Japanese, enhanced the story, strengthening its verisimilitude.
Where the film is successful, is in the multitude of indelible images that re-create the horror show that was 1937 Nanking. The images from the film's opening sequence are shattering as they suggest an escalating atmosphere of terror that affected both the Chinese civilian and military population . One image that really sticks in my mind are the Chinese soldiers trying to escape the walled city and are unsuccessfully held back by their commanders. For those soldiers who stayed behind, they're shown to be courageous as they fight back against an overwhelmingly superior force. When they are finally defeated and surrender, the brutal Japanese soldiers take no prisoners. Some are herded into a warehouse with the doors locked shut and then the building is set on fire. Others are marched to the ocean and almost all are machine-gunned to death. Before they're murdered, the soldiers shout "Long live China" and again show their courage against their brutal occupiers.
Worse is what happens to the civilian population, especially the Chinese women. The Japanese force the leaders in the 'Safety Zone' (an area where refugees were supposedly protected by an agreement with international observers) to select 100 women to serve as prostitutes over a period of three weeks for the Japanese soldiers. The women are strapped to beds and are raped continuously through the day and night. Some fail to survive the ordeal and who can forget the scene where the soldiers carry out the nude corpses in a wheelbarrow? The strategies of the Japanese troops recall the sadism of their Nazi counterparts in the book & film, 'Sophies Choice'. You'll recall that Sophie was forced to select one of her children over another by the Nazis. In Nanking, the Japanese play their own little sadistic game—they lead families to believe that their loved ones will be let go—but then order the families to choose only one!
Of all the characters here, Mr. Tang is the most compelling. Tang was John Rabe's interpreter and assistant. When Rabe informs him that he's being recalled back to Germany, Tang makes a pact with the devil by informing the Japanese commanders that there might be Chinese soldiers hiding out in the safety zone; he does this to obtain a safe conduct pass in order to save his family. This admission creates the pretext for the occupiers to violate the agreement and invade the safety zone in order to commit more atrocities. Tang soon learns that the Japanese had no intention of honoring their side of the bargain and a Japanese soldier ends up throwing Tang's daughter out the window. In an act of redemption, Tang trades places with a soldier and remains behind as his wife escapes when she leaves Nanking with John Rabe.
Lu is unsuccessful when he attempts to throw a bone to the Japanese people of today by creating the unconvincing character of Kadokawa. According to Lu, he based Kadokawa's character on diaries he read of Japanese soldiers who were in Nanking during the massacres. Although there may have been a few soldiers who were repulsed by what they saw, the vast majority were more like Ida, Kadokawa's sadistic direct superior. Lu has trouble fleshing out his Kadokawa character—he shows his sensitive side to a Japanese 'comfort girl' who he claims that one day she'll be his wife. And later, Kadokawa shoots Miss Jiang as a mercy killing and then does himself in, as he is unable to cope with his guilt. But it's really not enough—Kadokawa is an anachronistic presence, designed to suggest that Japanese people weren't that bad, even back then. But in 1937, the mindset of the average Japanese person, was decidedly quite fanatical.
What Lu merely needed to do was put a disclaimer at the beginning of the film, noting that Japan transformed itself after the War and that the son should not pay for the iniquity of the father. Without Kadokawa (or perhaps having him as a greatly reduced presence), 'City' would have been much more true to life and there would have been no misunderstanding Lu was blaming the Japanese born after WW II, who bear no responsibility for the bloody scenes that happened so long ago.
Ironically, Lu ended up receiving death threats, not from the Japanese but from some Chinese people who felt that he did not extract a sufficient enough "pound of flesh" as compensation for those who suffered during the Occupation. I can recall my own grandparents, who had relatives that were killed in the Holocaust, speak ever so harshly of the Germans and wanted nothing to do with any of them—even those born after the War. Because it was an emotional issue, they ignored the Biblical admonition found in Ezekiel 18:20: "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity". The same can be said for many Chinese people who are unable to forgive the Japanese, even though rationally it makes no sense that those born after the war are blamed for their parents or grandparents' crimes. While Director Lu's reconciliation strategy is a noble one, I'm not completely convinced the way he went about expressing his attitude of 'forgiveness' toward the Japanese, enhanced the story, strengthening its verisimilitude.
Where the film is successful, is in the multitude of indelible images that re-create the horror show that was 1937 Nanking. The images from the film's opening sequence are shattering as they suggest an escalating atmosphere of terror that affected both the Chinese civilian and military population . One image that really sticks in my mind are the Chinese soldiers trying to escape the walled city and are unsuccessfully held back by their commanders. For those soldiers who stayed behind, they're shown to be courageous as they fight back against an overwhelmingly superior force. When they are finally defeated and surrender, the brutal Japanese soldiers take no prisoners. Some are herded into a warehouse with the doors locked shut and then the building is set on fire. Others are marched to the ocean and almost all are machine-gunned to death. Before they're murdered, the soldiers shout "Long live China" and again show their courage against their brutal occupiers.
Worse is what happens to the civilian population, especially the Chinese women. The Japanese force the leaders in the 'Safety Zone' (an area where refugees were supposedly protected by an agreement with international observers) to select 100 women to serve as prostitutes over a period of three weeks for the Japanese soldiers. The women are strapped to beds and are raped continuously through the day and night. Some fail to survive the ordeal and who can forget the scene where the soldiers carry out the nude corpses in a wheelbarrow? The strategies of the Japanese troops recall the sadism of their Nazi counterparts in the book & film, 'Sophies Choice'. You'll recall that Sophie was forced to select one of her children over another by the Nazis. In Nanking, the Japanese play their own little sadistic game—they lead families to believe that their loved ones will be let go—but then order the families to choose only one!
Of all the characters here, Mr. Tang is the most compelling. Tang was John Rabe's interpreter and assistant. When Rabe informs him that he's being recalled back to Germany, Tang makes a pact with the devil by informing the Japanese commanders that there might be Chinese soldiers hiding out in the safety zone; he does this to obtain a safe conduct pass in order to save his family. This admission creates the pretext for the occupiers to violate the agreement and invade the safety zone in order to commit more atrocities. Tang soon learns that the Japanese had no intention of honoring their side of the bargain and a Japanese soldier ends up throwing Tang's daughter out the window. In an act of redemption, Tang trades places with a soldier and remains behind as his wife escapes when she leaves Nanking with John Rabe.
Lu is unsuccessful when he attempts to throw a bone to the Japanese people of today by creating the unconvincing character of Kadokawa. According to Lu, he based Kadokawa's character on diaries he read of Japanese soldiers who were in Nanking during the massacres. Although there may have been a few soldiers who were repulsed by what they saw, the vast majority were more like Ida, Kadokawa's sadistic direct superior. Lu has trouble fleshing out his Kadokawa character—he shows his sensitive side to a Japanese 'comfort girl' who he claims that one day she'll be his wife. And later, Kadokawa shoots Miss Jiang as a mercy killing and then does himself in, as he is unable to cope with his guilt. But it's really not enough—Kadokawa is an anachronistic presence, designed to suggest that Japanese people weren't that bad, even back then. But in 1937, the mindset of the average Japanese person, was decidedly quite fanatical.
What Lu merely needed to do was put a disclaimer at the beginning of the film, noting that Japan transformed itself after the War and that the son should not pay for the iniquity of the father. Without Kadokawa (or perhaps having him as a greatly reduced presence), 'City' would have been much more true to life and there would have been no misunderstanding Lu was blaming the Japanese born after WW II, who bear no responsibility for the bloody scenes that happened so long ago.