This is a remarkable film. Shot entirely in black and white it has the feel of newsreel footage in some parts. Nanking is a dreadful testimony to the excesses and cruelties of war and one that Japan has not been fast to acknowledge. However this film goes beyond simplicities and goes beyond the particularity of this city's torment and destruction.
War blights victor and victim alike. The story is told through the eyes and feelings of a few characters, that at the end you feel you knew, somehow, somewhere. There are some moments of stunning originality and unpredictability. The acting is convincing even if sometimes it feels almost balletic in the way scenes are played out.
Perhaps the budget was low because the scenes feel like they were largely shot in a studio - but somehow that does not matter - just as the best of stage plays can be entirely convincing, so is this film. It absorbs, horrifies and moves. Not a film to be missed but perhaps not a film for the faint hearted either.
War blights victor and victim alike. The story is told through the eyes and feelings of a few characters, that at the end you feel you knew, somehow, somewhere. There are some moments of stunning originality and unpredictability. The acting is convincing even if sometimes it feels almost balletic in the way scenes are played out.
Perhaps the budget was low because the scenes feel like they were largely shot in a studio - but somehow that does not matter - just as the best of stage plays can be entirely convincing, so is this film. It absorbs, horrifies and moves. Not a film to be missed but perhaps not a film for the faint hearted either.