City of Life and Death

(Nanjing! Nanjing!)

by Lu Chuan

China

Director: Lu Chuan

Script: Lu Chuan

Cinematographer: Cao Yu

Editing: Teng Yun

Art Director: Yi Hao

Sound: Lai Qizhen

Music: Liu Tong

Cast: Nakaizumi Hideo, Wei Fan, Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Jiang Yiyan, Liu Bin, Kohata Ryu, John Paisley, Qin Lan

Production: China Film Group, Jiangsu Broadcasting System, Media Asia Film Ltd, Stellar media Group Ltd.

Distribution:
Metropolitan Film Export
29, rue Galilée
75116 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.56.59.23.00
Fax: 0033 1.53.57.84.01
Mail: [email protected]
www.metrofilms.com

Year: 2009

35 mm, B & W, 135 min, 
OV Mandarin & Japanese with Englis Subtitles

Awarded at San Sebastian Film Festival, Golden Horse at Taipei Film Festival & several Prizes at Asian Film Awards 2010

China, 1937. Japan has occupied Manchuria for six years. A new war against China starts. After Peking, Shanghai falls and the Japanese imperial army launches an offensive against Nanking, which then was the capital of China. The Chinese soldiers are totally unorganized in the city. Some want to surrender and others resort to force to oppose, while the major part of troops and a part of the population have already left. When the Japanese soldiers enter the ghost city, they are ordered not to make any prisoner. The ‘Nanking Massacre’ has started. Among the Japanese soldiers, young Kadokawa participates in the plundering of the city while at the same time he observes it with terror. On the Chinese side, soldiers are executed massively and women of all ages are raped. The many civilians who could not be evacuated try to organise themselves to survive…

City of Life and Death, also known as Nanking! Nanking!, was released in China in April 2009 where it became one of the biggest successes of the year.