TIFF '09 Day San

The City of Life and Death – You know you’re in for a downer of a movie when one of the most sympathetic characters is a Nazi. Lu Chuan’s The City of Life and Death depicts one of the most sensitive episodes in modern Asian history, the fall of Nanking.

Americans hear very little about the Pacific Theater until our own involvement following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Prior to the film, I was vaguely familiar with Sino-Japanese relations during the early 20th century. I knew they'd fought but not the specifics of those wars. I’d heard the phrase “the rape of Nanking” on occasion and perhaps had read a brief bit on it, but not enough to prepare me for this film. The film opens with the Japanese siege of Nanking as thousands of Chinese soldiers begin to abandon the lost city. A small contingent stays behind to mount one final wave of resistance against the advancing Japanese. After a brief but valiant effort, the remaining Chinese soldiers are rounded up and summarily executed. These executions are shown in brutal detail and are all harrowing to watch. Live burnings and burials, repeated bayonetting, mowing down thousands with heavy machine gun fire, you name it. The Japanese seemed to revel in how many ways they could liquidate their captives. After the remnants of the Chinese army are disposed of, the Japanese soldiers begin indiscriminately killing civilians, mostly men, some children. Then things get really bad.


A group of international aide workers (its never really clear who they work for—the patches on their arms seemed to suggest the Red Cross) has gathered many of the city’s remaining residents in a “safe zone” under the protection of a Nazi businessman, John Rabe (historical figure). The trouble begins when Japanese soldiers begin raping young girls inside the “safe zone.” The military leaders initially apologize for the offense, but you soon realize not only are they insincere, but they have perhaps encouraged their soldiers to behave in such a way.

It only gets worse as they begin demanding women be turned over to act as “comfort women” for the Japanese soldiers. There is one Japanese serviceman with a shred of conscience whom we follow through the film, Kadokawa. He seems to be the only honorable Japanese person in the film (there's also a Japanese prostitute whom he falls in love with who is a pretty blameless if pathetic character). Even so, the director took criticism for showing any sympathetic Japanese characters. It’s like having a sympathetic Nazi in a Holocaust movie. (I don’t believe there was one in Schindler’s List). Not saying this is necessary, but it makes the movie more bearable for the viewer to at least indulge in the speculation that there were soldiers who actively disapproved of what was going on. It was also a brave choice on the director’s part.

The movie does not hold back in showing the atrocities of the Japanese army. Many of the events depicted were grounded in fact and the recollection of survivors so I don’t doubt the authenticity (interesting to note that just like Holocaust deniers, there are "Rape of Nanking"-deniers as well). It’s a lot to absorb though. It’s the kind of film that gives me doubts about humanity. Whenever I see films that depict some of the darkest moments in modern human history such as the Holocaust or Rwandan genocide, I just wonder: “how can people act this way?” It raises the uncomfortable idea that within all of us is the capacity to rape or murder or dehumanize another person almost completely. It’s really quite frightening. Other things I left the movie eager to find out about were: how did the Chinese end up revering Lenin, what caused the Sino-Japanese War and how did the Chinese lose so badly? Highly recommended.


Triage – Why isn’t Colin Farrell more appreciated as an actor? The guy is good. Really good. Triage tells the story of a couple of war photographers capturing the escalating hostilities in Kurdistan between Kurdish rebels and Iraqi forces. Farrell's Mark wants to go deeper into the front lines of the war, while his best friend and fellow photojournalist, David (Jamie Sives doing a great job communicating how war can get to even the non-combatants) is ready to bounce altogether (his wife is expecting their first child). Bad things happen, but we don't find out exactly what until much later in the film. The movie does a great job of evoking a sense of foreboding in the audience. We know this can't end well when Mark returns home without David after the two get separated in Kurdistan. In the meantime we watch as Farrell's character continues to show the debilitating effects of war on the human psyche. Enter Christopher Lee as the retired psychoanalyst who helps Farrell and us get to the bottom of the mystery and his growing misery. I also loved this film because Christopher Lee gets to remind us that a.) he’s still alive and b.) he’s a hell of an actor. I hope this film gets distribution stateside. It's not going to be many people's first choice for a night at the movies, but it's worth two hours of your time.


Survival of the Dead – I think George Romero needs to take a break from making zombie movies. I think this is his sixth one? The ideas are just getting threadbare at this point. And if I have to sit through yet another zombie movie where somebody gets infected and we have to watch while the person slowly deteriorates and has to be ‘Old Yeller'ed’, blecch. This one takes place mostly on an island as a group of military deserters turned bandits take sides in a feud between two old Irish clans. The basis of the feud not only seems irrelevant, but halfway through the film one side seems to abandon the principles that lead to the fighting to begin with. I just stopped caring after a while. I thought Diary of the Dead had its moments and was an interesting angle with the whole ‘new media’ stuff. This just feels like a lark.