Becky
North Pole
This review may contain spoilers
Beautiful cinematography and gripping story, but difficult to watch
You need to set aside more time to watch this movie, it is difficult to watch it in 1 setting. That said, the rape scenes are less graphic than other war time movies that I've seen. The director cleverly deployed the girls' fear, struggles, running away from the enemy soldiers to convey the feelings of hopelessness and distress to us, the audience.
The movie starts with the convent girls running across a part of town in Nanjing, with the enemy soldiers in pursuit. An American mortician is also running, but towards a church. He was sent to the church due to the passing of the pastor, and had unexpectedly arrived in the midst of Japanese invasion. I love the war scenes here. The gun shooting choreography is clear, clean-cut, easy for audience to understand (there are war movies in attempt to be realistic, end up with very confusing shots and difficult to understand).
The american and some of the convent girls (a few would die) then arrived at the church. As they were settling in, a group of prostitutes from the town brothel attempt to seek refuge in the church....
Do note the story is told from the pov of 1 of the convent girls. Hence there is no proper closure to the story, as movie ended when she escaped out of Nanjing.
Usually when there is a foreigner (caucasian) in asian movies, the role is like an object, just there to faciliate the plot. But here, Christian Bale fully participate in the story events. And we get to see his character changes (can't say more, don't wanna spoil it for you) as the story develops. Excellent performance by all the actors. Ni Ni was stunning in her debut! It is unbelievable that she had no prior acting or modeling experience.
To keep to the authenticity, dialogues are in Nanjing dialect (not mandarin, i had to read the subtitles too...), English and Japanese. And all the actors spoke their own lines.
This movie is stunning in its cinematography and storytelling. It grips you right from the start, you would close your eyes at the intense scenes and sigh when they escaped. Another masterpiece by Zhang Yimou.
The movie starts with the convent girls running across a part of town in Nanjing, with the enemy soldiers in pursuit. An American mortician is also running, but towards a church. He was sent to the church due to the passing of the pastor, and had unexpectedly arrived in the midst of Japanese invasion. I love the war scenes here. The gun shooting choreography is clear, clean-cut, easy for audience to understand (there are war movies in attempt to be realistic, end up with very confusing shots and difficult to understand).
The american and some of the convent girls (a few would die) then arrived at the church. As they were settling in, a group of prostitutes from the town brothel attempt to seek refuge in the church....
Do note the story is told from the pov of 1 of the convent girls. Hence there is no proper closure to the story, as movie ended when she escaped out of Nanjing.
Usually when there is a foreigner (caucasian) in asian movies, the role is like an object, just there to faciliate the plot. But here, Christian Bale fully participate in the story events. And we get to see his character changes (can't say more, don't wanna spoil it for you) as the story develops. Excellent performance by all the actors. Ni Ni was stunning in her debut! It is unbelievable that she had no prior acting or modeling experience.
To keep to the authenticity, dialogues are in Nanjing dialect (not mandarin, i had to read the subtitles too...), English and Japanese. And all the actors spoke their own lines.
This movie is stunning in its cinematography and storytelling. It grips you right from the start, you would close your eyes at the intense scenes and sigh when they escaped. Another masterpiece by Zhang Yimou.
Was this review helpful to you?
