Exposing the ‘truth’ about the Nanking massacre

BEIJING – “City of Life and Death” might sound like your average escapist action film helping to usher in the summer movie season. 

But it’s not.

The 2-hour black and white epic recounts the early days of Japan’s occupation of Nanking (now known as Nanjing) in 1937. Over six weeks, Japanese troops committed brutal atrocities against hundreds of thousands of residents of the wartime Chinese capital. 

Estimates of those killed vary wildly, but historians say around 200,000 to 300,000 people were slaughtered.  It’s a dark episode of World War Two that doesn’t get much mention in the West, but here in China no one has forgotten.

Courtesy of Lu Chuan Film Studio

Japanese troops take over Nanking in the “City of Life and Death.”

“In China, everyone knows about the Nanjing Massacre,” said 38-year old filmmaker Lu Chuan, who directed “City of Life and Death.” 

“But as far as I know, nobody outside of China knows [about it]… I think it’s important to let people outside of China know the truth, because wars and massacres are everywhere.”

Portraying Japanese in a new light
But Lu’s film does more than “tell the truth.”

Using an ensemble cast of Chinese and Japanese actors, the movie tries to portray Japanese soldiers in a much more humane light than previously seen in China-made movies of that era.

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