City of Life and Death (Blu-ray) (2009)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Featurette-Behind The Scenes Theatrical Trailer Trailer-x 9 for other films
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	135:10
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	?
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Chuan Lu
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Ye Liu Yuanyuan Gao Hideo Nakaizumi
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Tong Liu

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Chinese DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Chinese Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Chinese Dolby Digital 2.0 (640Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English Alternate Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

Kadokawa: “Life is more difficult than death”

     Towards the end of 1937 the Japanese army captured the then Chinese capital Nanking. Before the capture the Chinese government, and most of the soldiers, had abandoned the capital, leaving behind small isolated pockets of troops as well as hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom fled into the International Safety Zone seeking help. But after the fighting ended, the carnage began. Thousands of Chinese prisoners were massacred and the systematic rape and murder of Chinese civilians began. In the end, over 300,000 civilians were slaughtered, and Nanking reduced to rubble. History knows this event as the Rape of Nanking, something that is still a source of tension between the Chinese and Japanese governments (in 2005 there were protests in China when the Japanese published school text books that China maintained played down the atrocities). City of Life and Death (original title Nanjing! Nanjing!) tells the story of the battle for Nanking and the events which followed.

     City of Life and Death is a powerful, brilliantly executed major film, a devastating and compelling experience expertly and courageously made by Chinese writer / director Lu Chuan. It is shot, documentary style, in beautiful black and white with battle scenes that are intense, chaotic and bloody, in the way of such sequences since Saving Private Ryan with hand held cameras and a sound design that puts the bullets, grenades and shells surging throughout your living room, the impacts palpable. Beyond the fighting, every scene looks stunning with wonderful set design; the rubble and body strewn streets of Nanking, the church, the prisoner of war stockades and cages. One audacious sequence is the Japanese victory dance, complete with drummers, in the main street of the ruined city, an indelible image of beauty and destruction. At other times the camera can linger, with long slow takes of the smouldering city. Here also the visuals are enhanced by the sound design; instead of the tumult of the action scenes, there can be a silence that is equally as unnerving; the almost silent POV of the prisoners marching to their deaths around 42:47 is only one of a number of examples.

     To tell the big picture, City of Life and Death concentrates on a number of “little people”. There is Chinese soldier Lu Jianxiong (Liu Ye) fighting on with his comrades with rifles and grenades against tanks after the city has been abandoned by the rest of the army, boy soldier Xiaodouzi (Liu Bin) growing up fast amid the carnage, and Miss Jiang (Gao Yuanyuan) a Chinese schoolteacher trying to bring a bit of humanity and order to the refugees crowded into the International Safety Zone. Also in the zone is the German businessman John Rabe (John Paisley), trying to use the friendship between Germany and Japan to mitigate some of the violence and save the innocent, and his Chinese secretary Mr. Tang (Fan Wei) who only wants to save his family even if it means dealing with the Japanese. Finally, there are Japanese soldiers Osamu Ida (Ryu Kohata) and especially Sergeant Kadokawa (Hodeo Nakaizumi) who does his duty but becomes increasingly disillusioned by the brutality and violence around him.

     Indeed, the sympatric portrayal of the Kadokawa character landed director Lu in a deal of trouble in China, including death threats, and apparently some theatres refused to show the film. Yet, this even-handedness is precisely the strength of the film; it shows tragic and horrible atrocities and events without polemic or ranker, allowing the camera to say everything about the lack of humanity in wartime, and the impact upon both victim and victimiser. And, despite the diverse range of Chinese characters, it is the role of Kadokawa who is the constant throughout the film. He is in the opening scene as the Imperial Japanese troops start their final assault on Nanking, and he is in the next to last scene of the film. It is Kadokawa who experiences the greatest character arc throughout the course of the film, with only the Mr. Tang character coming close. Indeed, they are the most interesting, and compelling, roles in the film.

     City of Life and Death is certainly harrowing, brutal and uncompromising, as befitting such a terrible atrocity committed by the Japanese military. Yet, most of the Japanese soldiers are not monsters, although they do monstrous things, and not all the Chinese are paragons of virtue; some do what they have to do to survive, although in the end collaborating with the Japanese guarantees nothing. There is nobility on both sides, which is surprising for a Chinese film on this touchy subject. Yet City of Life and Death does end with a ray of hope, and not a little humanity, showing that no-one is unscarred by war and that sometimes indeed life is more difficult that death.

     City of Life and Death is a powerful, brilliantly executed film, a devastating and compelling experience, expertly and courageously made by Chinese writer / director Lu Chuan. Like Schindler’s List, the images and events will live in your mind long after the film has finished.

Video

    City of Life and Death is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original ratio, in 1080p.

     The print is fine although it is not the film to show off your Blu-ray player. The film was shot on colour stock and then desaturated to a pristine black and white, with superb sharpness and detail; every whisker and dirt mark is cleanly shown. Blacks are deep, shadow detail fine. The print has heavy film grain throughout but this tends to enhance the documentary feel of the hand held cameras and so adds, not detracts, from the viewing experience. On the other hand, there is quite a deal of aliasing, see the bricks at 59:18 but a number of scenes with any sort of “mottled” background exhibit this trait. There is also motion blur and minor edge enhancement. However, I did not notice any marks or other artefacts.

     There are four sets of English subtitles; two white and two yellow and both white and yellow are easy to read and free of spelling or grammatical errors. Two of the streams are listed as “English Cinesub” (white and yellow tracks) but in truth I could not see any difference between them and the other two tracks. Certainly no effects where noted on either track.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio choices were DTS-HD MA 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 at 640 Kbps and Dolby Digital 2.0, also at 640 Kbps. They are a mixture of languages depending on who is speaking, mostly Chinese and Japanese but with some English and German as well. Unlike the video, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio is awesome and indeed one to show off your system.

     Dialogue was clean and mostly centred although on occasion voices do come from around the sound stage. The surrounds and rear speakers are constantly in use, the battle scenes especially a cacophony of sound panning all around the sound stage: gun fire and impact hits, cannons, grenades, voices, and explosions giving a wonderfully enveloping experience. Yet the sound stage can be almost silent on occasion; the click of a stone, a footfall in the rubble in the surrounds is a very effective and subtle sound design. The subwoofer was also extensively in play supporting explosions, music, engines and explosions, yet never seemed to unbalance the sound stage. The victory celebration sequence, with the drums booming and resonating around the room is another wonderful sound experience. .

     The music by Liu Tong was excellent, ranging from a single piano to drums, to a plaintive voice, to swelling orchestra. It provided a terrific support to the visuals and was nicely represented in the mix. This was his first film score – I look forward to the next one!

     Lip Synchronisation occasionally seemed off, especially the German of John Paisley. Mostly it was fine.

     This is a wonderful, perfectly balanced audio track placing the viewer inside the action.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Behind the Scenes (103:43)

     A candid no-holds-barred look behind the production from its inception until the last day of principle photography, approximately 3 years later. It is mostly in the form of a video diary and behind the scenes footage interspersed with frank comments, filmed during the shoot, from cast and crew. Items covered include the initial idea, scouting for locations, the approval process with the government, funding troubles (the production was shut down for 24 days due to lack of money), building the set, crew corruption and wasting money, changes to the script, filming in -10 C, behind the scenes arguments and the ill health of the director. All in all it was a wonder the film was ever finished. Those who have a say include crew Lu Chuan (writer / director), Cau Yu (cinematographer), Ren Jie, Xing Song (executive producers), Hao Yi (production designer) and Zhao Yisui (executive director) plus cast members Liu Ye, Fan Wei, Gao Yuanyuan, Jiang Yiyuan, Yao Di and Qin Lan.

     This is an insightful piece and well worth watching as a film documentary it its own right; the closest equivalent I can think of is Hearts of Darkness, the documentary about the filming of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic in the Philippines, which was equally as candid .

Theatrical Trailer (1:43)

Trailers

     Trailers for other films: Small Town Murder Songs (2:19), Stalingrad (1:52), Three (1:45), Jess + Moss (0:59), Breaking Upwards (2:20), A Somewhat Gentle Man (2:11), Vatel (1:41), Dear Lemon Lima (1:24) and R U There (1:26).

     The US Region A Blu-ray comes in either a one disc edition, with the film only, or a two disc edition with the Behind the Scenes on the second disc. There is also a Chinese Region All Region and a Hong Kong Region A. The latter has the same Behind the Scenes and trailer but adds a DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio in place of our 5.1, so if this is of interest and you can play Region A it is probably the pick. However, our Region B release is fine as it does contain the wonderful extra feature. The Region B UK seems the same as ours.

     City of Life and Death is a powerful, brilliantly executed film, a devastating and compelling experience whose images and events will live on in your mind long after the film has finished. This is a major film with the power to stir the emotions on an important subject that should be seen.

     The video is good, the audio awesome. The main extra is the terrific film length making of.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall