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Poster for City of Life and Death

City of Life and Death

2009 · 132 min

A harrowing, unflinching immersion into atrocity, shot in stark black and white, that weighs heavily on the soul.

Directed by
Lu Chuan
Genres
Drama, History, War
Starring
Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Hideo Nakaizumi
Overview
In 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army has just captured Nanjing, then-capital of the Republic of China. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, a six week period wherein tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed.

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Free in the UK
  • Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads
  • Amazon MX Player
More options Data from JustWatch
Directed by
Lu Chuan
Genres
Drama, History, War
Starring
Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Hideo Nakaizumi
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • bleakstrength 3 of 3
  • darkstrength 3 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • war
  • violence
  • death
  • guilt
  • survival
Places
  • big city
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • true story
  • ensemble
Content intensity
  • Gore strong
  • Language mild
  • Violence strong
  • Sex strong
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action5
Horror7
Humour0
Realism9
Romance2
Tension8
Darkness10
Complexity7
Emotional weight10

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Where to watch in the UK

Free
  • Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads
  • Amazon MX Player
Rent or buy
  • Amazon Video

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
drama, history, war
Directed by
Lu Chuan
Written by
Lu Chuan
Starring
Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Hideo Nakaizumi, John Paisley, Beverly Peckous, Fan Wei, Qin Lan, Ryu Kohata
Music
Liu Tong
Cinematography
Cao Yu
Runtime
132 min
Country
China, Hong Kong
Languages
German, Mandarin, Japanese, English

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