City of Life and Death | reviews, news & interviews
City of Life and Death
City of Life and Death
A Chinese war film of symphonic ambition humanises the Japanese enemy too
Friday, 16 April 2010
The rape of Nanking: Chinese women were forced to offer 'comfort' to the victors
From The Bridge on the River Kwai onwards, the Japanese haven’t tended to come up smelling of roses in war movies. Kind of unsurprisingly. In recent years it was Clint Eastwood who moved the story on. In Flags of Our Fathers he painted the Japanese military as the yellow peril, but gave them the benefit of the doubt in Letters from Iwo Jima, the other half of his Pacific diptych. City of Life and Death attempts to do in one film what Eastwood split into two: a portrait of the Japanese war machine as a manifestation of pitiless amorality; and the component parts of that machine as sentient human beings (at least some of them, anyway).
From The Bridge on the River Kwai onwards, the Japanese haven’t tended to come up smelling of roses in war movies. Kind of unsurprisingly. In recent years it was Clint Eastwood who moved the story on. In Flags of Our Fathers he painted the Japanese military as the yellow peril, but gave them the benefit of the doubt in Letters from Iwo Jima, the other half of his Pacific diptych. City of Life and Death attempts to do in one film what Eastwood split into two: a portrait of the Japanese war machine as a manifestation of pitiless amorality; and the component parts of that machine as sentient human beings (at least some of them, anyway).
Add comment
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Film
Best of 2024: Film
theartsdesk's movie critics pick their favourites from the last 12 months
Best of 2024: Blu-ray
The pick of the year's releases: films spanning decades, continents and genres
Nosferatu review - Lily-Rose Depp stands out in uneven horror remake
Robert Eggers leaves his mark on adaptation of classic, but it’s not always for the best
Blu-ray: Hitchcock - The Beginning
A box set shows how Alfred Hitchcock embraced the sound revolution – pathologies intact
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl review - an old foe returns
Stop-motion animation on an epic scale
Blu-ray: Three Wishes for Cinderella
Witty, engaging Czech fairy tale with an appealingly feisty heroine
Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes review - a Hollywood legend, warts and all
A documentary portrait of Bogie toes the official line but still does him justice
Sujo review - cartels through another lens
A surprisingly subtle narco pic from Mexico
Queer review - Daniel Craig meets William Burroughs
Luca Guadagnino's film is crazy but it just might work
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review - a middling return to Middle-earth
JRR Tolkien gets the anime treatment
The Commander review - the good Italian
Chivalrous valour at sea from a real World War Two hero
Nocturnes review - the sounds of the rainforest transport you a remote region of the Himalayas
Mansi spends her nights counting moths in North East India
Comments
...