Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

City of Life and Death Blu-ray Movie Review

One of the weightiest war dramas in recent memory.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater October 16, 2011

Of all the films I’ve seen so far this year, writer/director Lu Chuan’s City of Life and Death—and I say this with no reservations—has been the most emotionally affecting. It’s a gut-punch of a cinematic experience, but even that doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s more like a series of gut-punches; it pummels you with the horrors and indignities of war until you’re left gasping and bruised. The subject is the battle and subsequent “rape” of Nanking by invading Japanese Imperial forces in 1937, a six-week massacre that claimed some 300,000 lives. Chinese POWs were rounded up, machine- gunned to death in columns, and tossed into the Yangtze river, while untold thousands of women were pressed into service as prostitutes or just outright raped in the streets, many mutilated and killed afterward.

City of Life and Death doesn’t shy away from any of this; like the best films about the Jewish Holocaust—and there are certainly nods to Schindler’s List here—it takes a long, clear-eyed look at these atrocities in order to remind us to never forget that they did, in fact, occur. This seems especially important in the case of Nanking, as ultra-nationalist Japanese groups since the end of WWII have consistently tried to downplay and even whitewash the actual events in history textbooks, dismissing the so-called rape as Chinese propaganda. To this day, it’s a sore source of contention between the two nations.

You almost wish these history-deniers could be tied down like Alex in A Clockwork Orange and forced to watch City of Life and Death with their eyes pried open so they can’t look away. At times, you’ll want to. This isn’t an easy film to watch. Shot in stark black and white on an enormous widescreen canvas, it’s both documentary-like and dramatic, realistic and poeticized. The story opens with the Japanese army besieging the thousand-year-old city gates of Nanking, and the first half-hour is non-stop war action, gritty and frenetic, as the troops roll through the city, wiping out stranded pockets of resistance.

As intense as the opening is, it’s nothing compared to the barbarism to come. Once the city has been taken, thousands of captured Chinese combatants are put in holding pens and mowed down with machinegun fire as they shout “China shall not perish!” Others are locked in buildings and torched or marched into the river and shot from behind. Some are buried alive, suffocating as Japanese soldiers hop on the dirt to tamp it down. All around there are corpses. Bodies hang from telephone poles. Naked women lie dead, splayed in the mud. Severed heads dangle from wires as grisly warnings. This is no popcorn war movie. There are no men-on-a-mission heroics, no rah-rah political jingoism—just slaughter and suffering and degradation. I don’t mean to suggest that City of Life and Death is some kind of historical snuff film—it’s not at all—but some of the imagery does what “torture porn” movies like Saw and Hostel never can: leave you genuinely shaken. This is the horror of wartime reality.

The tone is a strange but effective mix of quiet reverence and near-constant dread as the occupying forces continue their reign, systematically raping and terrorizing the city’s inhabitants. Director Lu Chuan shifts the film’s focus between several individuals, and the resulting narrative has both scope and intimacy. Portly warrior Zhao narrowly escapes the early machinegun massacre as his stoic comrade Lu Jianxiong (Liu Ye) nobly faces death. John Rabe (John Paisley), a surprisingly kind Nazi, runs the International Safety Zone—where refugees are provided a modicum of protection from the Japanese troops—and his secretary, Mr. Tang (Fan Wei), tries in vain to use his alliance with the German to keep his wife and daughter from harm. Miss Jiang (Yuanyuan Gao) organizes the women of the safety zone, ordering them to dress like men to avoid rape, but Xiaojiang (Jiang Yiyin) refuses and willingly volunteers to become a “comfort woman.”

Oddly enough, the character that comes closest to being a traditional protagonist is a Japanese soldier, Masao Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi), a quiet, conscientious virgin with a Christian background who promises to marry the first prostitute he meets—a young Japanese woman who holds him motherly against her chest—and comes to sympathize with Nanking’s oppressed. He tries to help the refugees in small ways, but his real role in the film seems to be as a symbolic representation of the unspoken shame and guilt some Japanese still feel for their country’s actions during the war. The positive portrayal of Kadokawa was controversial in China, and the film was actually pulled from several theaters, but this seems reactionary and unwarranted. The message here, if you want to call it that, is one of possible forgiveness and reconciliation. Horrible offenses against humanity were committed, yes, and they need to be addressed in some significant way, but Lu Chuan is careful not to paint the Japanese as categorically evil. It’s war itself—not race or nationality—that makes men forget their better natures.

Taken together, the individual stories that make up the whole of City of Life and Death are devastating and, at times, almost unbearable. Your knuckles will go white. There will be stretches where your mouth will hang open in suspended shock and scenes that will give you a palpable kick-in-the-groin queasiness. How many films can prompt a physical reaction like that?

City of Life and Death Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

City of the Life and Death is, quite simply, visually stunning. I have no idea why more contemporary films aren't presented in black and white. It works so perfectly here—gritty and moody, stark and uncompromising. Somehow, the image looks both appropriately antique and ultra-modern. (I really can't say enough about how great the cinematography is.) The film was actually shot in color on 35mm and then desaturated in post, and this presumably allowed for greater control over the gradation and contrast. Highlights are crisp but never overblown, and black levels are inky deep. While shadow detail is regularly crushed during darker scenes, this is a natural and intentional part of the high-contrast look—I have a feeling the balance is exactly as intended. The 1080p/AVC-encoded picture is also terrifically sharp, and you'll notice extremely fine detail in the areas of the frame that are in focus; facial texture is highly resolved, the stitching is visible in the period uniforms and clothing, and the concrete rubble of Nanking looks realistically pitted, cracked, and pocked. Finally, it's clear that nothing has been done to tamper with the image in any unnecessary ways. There's no evidence of harsh edge enhancement, film grain is entirely preserved, and I didn't spot any compression problems. I did catch a few small blink-and-you'll-miss-them white specks on the print, but this is a non-issue. City of Life and Death deserves full marks for a remarkable aesthetic and a practically flawless Blu-ray presentation.

Do note that while the shooting aspect ratio was 2.39:1, the film is presented as intended, in 2.20:1.

City of Life and Death Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track also easily earns a perfect score in my book. (Even if we're missing the 7.1 track that came with the film's Hong Kong Blu-ray release.) The mix is not only dynamic and clear and balanced, but it's also consistently immersive. In particular, the sound design for the opening battle sequence is a demo-worthy example of wow-inducing, room-rattling, duck-and-cover audio. Turn it up loud and prepare to be blown away. Gunfire spits hotly in every direction, and when bullets meet concrete, wood, plaster, or stone, chips of debris go flying realistically through the soundfield. Mortar rounds are launched with a satisfying thwonk and explode into buildings, setting off rippling subwoofer waves. Tanks roll in with an aggressive rumble and airplanes roar overhead. This is powerful stuff, and while the rest of the film isn't quite as intense, it's just as engaging. There's almost always some ambient noise in the real speakers—from wind and other environmental sounds to cries and chatter and directional effects—and Liu Tong's orchestral score sounds wonderful, blending western elements with traditional Chinese instrumentation. Dialogue is clean and well-balanced throughout, and the disc includes optional English subtitles in easy-to-read white lettering.

City of Life and Death Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only special features on the Blu-ray disc itself are a collection of trailers for other Kino-Lorber titles and a photo gallery with 48 stills, but the release also comes with a DVD which contains Matters of Life and Death (SD, 1:53:56), a feature-length making-of documentary that covers every aspect of the film's creation and includes lots of interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. A bit slow and perhaps longer than it needs to be, but well worth watching.

City of Life and Death Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

City of Life and Death is a powerful, emotionally wrenching experience that you won't easily forget. And that's precisely the point—it asks us to always remember the atrocities that were committed in Nanking. This is one of the very best films I've seen this year, and it's also a stunning experience on Blu-ray, with a gorgeous black and white presentation and a lossless audio track that's seriously intense. This one is not to be missed. Highly recommended!