UPDATE 9/22/2011: Congrats to the winner, Eunice P!
City of Life and Death is a visionary drama of the 1937 Japanese-Chinese conflict known as the Nanking Massacre. Released in China in 2009 under the title 南京! 南京! (Nánjīng! Nánjīng!), this Chinese film directed by Lu Chuan (his third feature film) was a box-office success, earning RMB150m (approximately $20 million) in its first two and a half weeks of its release.
With the success of the film, Lu Chuan was also inundated with death threats because “one of the film’s protagonists, a Japanese soldier witnessing the atrocities committed by his countrymen during the occupation of Nanjing, is shown in a sympathetic light,” according to the New York Times.
In fact, many people assumed the movie would have been banned by the government because of its graphic scenes of rape and murder by Japanese soldiers, including mass executions, decapitated heads, cartloads of naked corpses and a child being thrown from a window to her death. The film made it to release after it had endured a lengthy analysis by Chinese censors, waiting six months for script approval, and another six months for approval of the finished film.
More about City of Life and Death:
In December 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army laid siege to the Chinese capital of Nanking, killing as many as 300,000 citizens during a six-week reign of terror, the details of which Japan and China dispute to this day. Abandoned by the outside world and with no resources or defenses, the people of Nanking were subjected to torture, rape and death by a chaotic army that had little experience operating in a foreign country. Chinese filmmaker Lu Chuan’s (Mountain Patrol: Kekexili) latest film is a bold re-creation of these events, told with startling humanism through the eyes of both victims and occupiers. Delving into the psychology of the Chinese’s struggle to survive and a Japanese soldier’s struggle with his conscience, Lu’s film is ultimately an indictment against the cruelty of war. Shot in dazzling black-and-white Cinemascope, CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH is a visionary re-telling of one of the most horrific chapters in modern Asian history, and an unforgettable masterpiece of contemporary world cinema.
Image courtesy of Kino International
Critics have said:
“Harrowing and unflinching… a cinematic experience unlike any you’ve had before. A film strong enough to change your life” – Kenneth Turan,
LA Times“Vast and ambitious…Lu has used the dramatic form to personalize this story and fashion a powerful, multilayered film that shows what ordinary human beings are capable of in extreme circumstances.” – Leonard Maltin
“A drama that could pass for a documentary…Lu Chuan’s epic film is harrowing in the extreme…As an act of remembrance, though, it is singular and, in its way, soaring.” – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
The film’s running time is 133 minutes; it is not rated. In Mandarin, Japanese, English and Shanghainese; fully subtitled in English.
If you’re in the Bay Area, why not catch it in the theatres?
Landmark Theatres Engagements begin Friday, September 23, 2011 at:
Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema, 601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 267-4893
Ok, ok, you just want to know how to win the tickets? Read on!
What you could win from Landmark Theatres and 8Asians:
A pair of tickets to see ’City of Life and Death’ anytime during Opening Weekend (Friday 9/23- Sunday 9/25, check theatre listings for exact days and showtimes) at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema!
Hurry, this contest closes Thursday, 9/22/2011 at 3pm Pacific Time, so the sooner you enter, the better!
ONE lucky winner will be selected.
How do you enter?
1) Like the 8Asians Facebook page!
2) Fill out the form below
[gravityform id=23 name=8Asians // Bay Area ‘City of Life and Death’ Ticket Giveaway]
Why do I have to fill out this form? We’re just trying to capture all the info needed to fulfill the prizes faster.
Can I enter more than once? No! Why you being so greedy?!
Prize courtesy of: Landmark Theatres and 8Asians.
