Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

khornewarrior What a watch. The movie is excellently made, you can relate to the characters,and as others have stated it doesn't take sides. But it is a very dark movie, makes you really think what we are as human beings,and how we can **** things up this bad.Definitely not your Friday night movie, but a great, deep movie to watch when you feel like it. I saw it on television tonight without any knowledge of it beforehand. The utter sadness of the film is constantly present and it is just hard to watch altogether.As the top review said, it's like a punch in the stomach. Indeed this movie hurts. A lot.

Bambikilled ** The spoilers contained are not really spoilers, just a very brief mention of a couple of scenes**As both a history nerd and a war movie freak, I was rather surprised to discover both a part of history, as well as this movie, and realize that I have hardly heard anything about the rape of Nanking, not by a word mentioned in any history lesson nor school literature in Sweden, where I live. I haven't seen many books about it either, during my years of devouring all literature about WWII and wars in conjunction with it. Sad, but it gave me the more reason to learn about the Sino-Japanese wars. This movie, I guess, was the introduction. The mixed reviews were rather confusing but I chose to go with the general trend, that it was see worthy. It was.Seldom I have been so completely punched down by a Movie, and so utterly engrossed. Everything about this flick just sucks you in, and shakes you up entirely.The black and white execution can, I guess, be a bit different, for watchers not used to old b&w movies, and definitely pretty unusual nowadays. But as I see it, this is one of the most important features of the movie, giving a raw, documentary, and very authentic feel to it. A very smart move by the director, giving the impression that what you are watching, is a piece of naked at-the-scene history. Still, the visual of the movie never loses it's insanely beautiful and powerful cinematography, with every frame In-Your-Face, smashing you like a fist of master photo. The actor portraits are strong, convincing and complex, and lets you feel and wonder, rather than just being fed, evolving and revealing more and more as the story unravels. Some critique Nakaizumi Hideo's rendition of Kadokawa, but I don't get it. IMO he does an amazing job, and makes me believe, and feel, him. Often, western viewers, have a hard time getting used to Asian film, which, according to me, has to do with the fact that western and Asian storytelling and dramaturgy traditionally differ a little bit, which of course is completely natural. In many Asian flicks I think the acting and scripts can feel a bit melodramatic for a western viewer. (Not for me though, as a long time fan of Asian film.) In this movie, however, not a trace of that can be detected. The form of this epic piece of film history, is rather the mellow and minimalistic storytelling of old, classic war drama, like for an example, the excellent Finnish "The unknown soldier" (by Edvin Laine, 1955, about another rather unknown part of WWII - the Finnish wars).The score and sound is also powerful, and adds to the air created, and a couple of scenes are epic, unforgettable, in their perfect harmony of visual, score and emotional strength (the scene with the climb to the top to oversee the field of corpses, and the scene with the ritualistic dance). Scenes that makes one shiver to the core - pure cinematic ecstasy.The story is simple, yet so dense of emotion and complexity, in it's slow pacing leading to a inevitable climax. Never pointing fingers, never glorifying, never picking sides. Just showing the horror of war, naked and raw, never glutting in blood, misery and atrocity, nonetheless giving a deep impact on the Viewer.This movie is NOT overrated by the people calling it a genuine masterpiece, because it IS. A powerful, haunting rendition of a horrific piece of history, with believable portrayals of HUMANS rather than sides. Humans affected by, and changed by, war. Beautifully told in it's awfulness.In a word; fantastic.

soundchaysa I was not familiar with the real life story of what happened at Nanjing. It would have been very easy for a director to exploit and over-dramatise this sordid piece of human history, yet Lu Chuan and his wonderful cast have done a fantastic job here.The acting is absolutely top rate. Not a hint of melodrama in sight, nothing overdone and the brutal horror of war, especially that directed at civilians comes across at exactly the right pitch. So much of the story is told simply in facial expressions that the horrors committed in the city did not need to be graphically or gratuitously filmed. Brilliant underplaying by the cast which is surely also a reflection of the directors vision and intelligence.Yes, some of the scenes are violent and brutal, but (at the risk of repeating myself) they simply and in a matter-of-fact way show what people are capable of. The fact that this was done almost as if one were watching a documentary or even as a witness places this film light- years away from the "Let's find heroes and villains" feel of many Hollywood war films.I'm not often moved to rush off and write a review of a film which only shows how moving this work is. I can't give it high enough praise.

James Smith This is one of the most compelling, horrific, thought provoking and shocking movies I have ever seen. It is doubtful that even a documentary could show the horrors of war so succinctly and clearly, as presented in this movie. The characters humanity and in some cases, in-humanity are vividly drawn, adding to the realism and the nightmarish atmosphere, where just like in a nightmare, there seems to be no escape. The cinematography is amazing, and the contrast by transposing the violence of man over the beauty of nature (with the sound of a gentle breeze) is so very effective. I'd read about the "Rape of Nanking" a long time before, and started watching this movie half expecting it to be so depressing, to get only halfway through before switching it off. Wrong. It was gripping from the start and introduced characters I wanted to survive no matter what, and to characters I hoped would die - violently. The movie had such an impact on me that by the end of it, I'm ashamed to say, I was wishing they had dropped a lot more than two atomic bombs on Japan to end World War 2 in the Pacific. Don't get the wrong idea, this is not an anti-Japanese film, more an exposition of what the human animal can do at its worst - in this case the Japanese in 1937. I know that many other atrocities have been committed by other nations since, and unfortunately, will be in the future. To plagarise from another reviewer - we should forgive but not forget.