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City of Life and Death BBC4

Did anyone else watch this last night? Christ it was amazing, totally brutal in parts. Film about the japanese 'taking' of Nanjing in 1937. Have to say its the first film ive seen in years that left me stunned and silenced and wanting to find out more about what happend.

Blurb from bbc4 website: Japanese forces invaded Nanjing, the former capital of the Republic of China on December 9th 1937. Throughout the following six weeks, soldiers raped thousands of women and annihilated hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians - with mass executions, crowds mown down by firing squads and victims digging their own graves. Few events carry the ugly and sickening connotations of what has become known as the 'Rape of Nanking'. Director Lu Chuan tells the horrifying story through several figures, including a conscience-stricken Japanese soldier and John Rabe, a Nazi businessman who would ultimately save thousands of Chinese civilians' lives

its on the bbc iplayer for 7 days as said not an easy watch but well worth it.

Comments

  • The Japanese got off very lightly after WW2 compared to the Germans.
  • theres one scene where they have some workers hiding in the old nazi's office, they want the women to go with the soliders, everyone is screaming a japanese soldier picks up a 2 year old girl and throws her out of the window to her death to get the peoples attention. I nearly switched off at this point having young kids at home the reaction of the father of the child was some of the best acting ive ever seen.
  • edited April 2012
    Excellent film - really enjoyed it last night. Based on Iris Changs book which is an excellent read.

    Even the Nazi party member protecting the civilian Chinese was horrified by the Japanese brutality. They just saw the Chinese as sub human and deserving of everthing they got.

    That is generally how the victors treated the vanguished for centiuries around the World though.
  • The Japanese got off very lightly after WW2 compared to the Germans.
    The price of guilt from the West for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    Mind you I don't call that 'getting off lightly'

  • I understand that but considering that Hirohito was never tried for war crimes and remained Emperor of Japan says it all.

  • As recommended by a certain lifer in the foreign films thread
  • I travel to China a fair bit for work, for some reason they are still not big fans of the Japanese......
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