Title: ninth ring of hell in Nanking
Review: (1/12/12, 4.5 stars, blu-ray) A powerful, wrenching movie that took me completely by surprise. Filmed in stark black and white, it feels at times like an impersonal newsreel archive of the terrifying violence and brutality perpetrated by the Japanese during their occupation of Nanking. The casualness of the often random terror inflicted by the Japanese is reflected in the detached stoicism/passiveness of the Japanese protagonist, who in the end finds himself unable to resolve the conflict between his military indoctrination and his empathy for the vanquished Chinese. Many of the combat scenes, although without special effects, are so well-enacted I found myself flinching involuntarily to dodge stray rounds. Eloquent and convincing cinematic corroboration of Sherman's remark that war is hell, doubly so when the invaders are racist supremacists.
Is this product review negative?