1 massacre, 2 films and 3 perspectives

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-24 09:07

Rabe also features in a supporting role in City of Life and Death. Here, though, the same farewell scene is filled with such rich emotion that you can feel the bond between him and those he had saved. There is not a dry eye, on screen or off.

Lu Chuan's production is not only more ambitious, but more attentive to detail. All the extras - and there were swarms of them - looked like people from that period, costume, haircut, facial expressions and all.

Lu has obviously learned a lot from the great masters such as Spielberg and Polanski. To start with, he took the bold step of making a high-budget epic in black and white, which is commercially risky but adds greatly to the gravitas of history. He exhibited artistic integrity by cutting a matinee idol's screen time by half because he felt that his role, as a soldier, had no chance of surviving in that environment, let alone date the female lead.

Most important of all, Lu was able to display the violence without letting it drown out the humanity. He not only drew subtle and convincing portrayals of the victims and survivors, but gave ample screen time to the Japanese soldiers, one of whom almost got top billing.

The John Rabe biopic could have been a great film because it has a limited scope and is therefore better equipped to fully explore its key characters. Unfortunately, it is overtaken by political correctness and ends up as a feeble supplement to the main story.

Previous 1 2 Next Page