A SAD, TRUE STORY : "CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH"

I think it’s only fair to give you a heads up: this week’s fare is not a happy one. From what may or may not happen in the distant future, we skip to something that actually has happened; something tragic that not enough of us in the Western world know about. In 1937, the Japanese imperial army invaded China. And despite the disparity in sizes, the Japanese wiped the floor with the Chinese…
During the invasion some of the worse horrors of war imaginable were committed and City of Life and Death is the story of the invasion of the city of Nanking, where some of the worse of these horrors were witnessed. We follow the fates of two people, one is a Japanese soldier who, despite obeying his orders, is conscience-stricken by what he is witnessing and the second is Mr. Tang, the personal secretary of John Rabe, a Nazi businessman who works from the area during this period.
The aim of the film is a very noble one. It is to present, in all its bareness and horror the events during and after the invasion of Nanking. Dismissing this film as yet another saga on the horrors of war and the evil man is capable of would be, to my mind, a mistake. As you watch the film you will realize – I did – that despite all these terrible events that took place I knew virtually nothing of them. And I feel that we owe it to the victims to take the time to stop and listen to the stories…
Cinematically speaking, I wouldn’t say that this is a good film. By this I mean that there is zero character development, we are confronted with certain types, certain characters we have to work out as we go along and if we don’t have specialist information on the matter we may (I did) struggle to work out certain points (questions like “Well who’s that then? What committee?” sprang forth quite regularly =) ). But you have to remember these are slightly beside the point when we consider the actual aim of this film. Even if we don’t have conventional character development we bear witness to some of the most horrific events we could imagine… The film is very difficult to watch and cannot help but touch your heart even though the methods it uses (again, cinematically) are slightly cliché…
This film, I felt, was a prime example demonstrating the importance of a good story. Of course in an ideal world you have a great story and some technical expertise to show different aspects of the story; but as long as the story is good, the latter isn’t an absolute obligation. Think of this film as a distant cousin of the documentary, then you should be alright. And definitely watch it with tissues close to hand; I cannot stress this enough, you would have to made of stone not to have tears in your eyes as you watch this one…