Excellent depiction of the horrors of humanity, war and brutality!

Rating: 10/10 (14 May 2012)

This is a masterful portrayal of wartime horrors, told through the eyes of a young girl (for the most part). The images and story shown in the movie are beautifully haunting as I found myself thinking about it even two days after my initial viewing.
This story chronicles the lives and actions of a number of people over what appeared to be less than a week: a young commander of the last group of Chinese soldiers left in Nanjing after Japanese occupation, a drifter American mortician, a group of school girls living in a Catholic convent, a Catholic alter boy who was left in charge of the girls, one of the girl's father, a group of prostitutes, a Japanese commander, and Japanese soldiers.
Unlike what a lot of critics believe, this story does not have a real protagonist nor a single hero. Rather, the survival of a few is due to the actions of many. This is what set the movie apart from its contemporaries.
Aside from the beautiful footages, I have to say the acting in this movie was SUPERB. The writing and direction is also excellent. It is very rare that the English dialogue in a Chinese movie sound believable. This is one such rare case. Christian Bale is excellent as usual, as a conflicted man with a conscience who is stuck in an awful situation (which is, like how he said once in the film, "a terrible joke"). The depiction of humanity and despair by the child actors were beautifully done. The dedication, courage and determination of the soldiers and of George the altar boy was nothing short of inspiring, and I could not help but to cry for their hopeless situation. Finally, the prostitutes were beautiful, sassy and human; I found myself thinking about them like Shu did at the end and wondering what had happened to them.
It's hard to believe that for most of the Chinese actors, this is their one of their first acting job.
A few things struck me as refreshing and intriguing: - The homesick Japanese commander who played a folk song (to which his second in command hummed along outside). It was said by the director that this was added intentionally to add dimension to the Japanese characters. This was very nicely done as it's rare for war films to depict enemies to embody any sympathetic qualities (exception: Letters from Iwo Jima). During the war, some Japanese soldiers were discouraged from feeling homesick by being encouraged to rape, pillage and murder. - The fleeting love between John and Mo was heartbreaking. - The very bittersweet ending. We could hope for the best but a google search on "comfort women" says otherwise. - I really like that this movie has little to no loopholes and that all the characters, saved for a few, had redeeming qualities that made them human.
Also, two things to note: - Nanjing, as the ancient capital of China, was home to many universities, expats and missionaries in the 1930's. Many people in Nanjing who were exposed to these places and people were capable of conversational English. This was explained in the movie so I found it believable because only the children (e.g., Shu, George, Mo, Shu's dad – who's a translator) who grew up in convents knew English but those who did not (e.g., Major Li, the rest of the prostitutes and the Japanese soldiers). - Roger Ebert was upset that John was a Caucasian priest whereas a Chinese priest should have been casted. Yeah, thanks Roger Ebert, try opening a history book next time. At that time, missionaries from the West were very common in China and westerner was given special treatment by the Japanese (who more or less saw all Chinese people as beneath them). There were many instances of Westerners using their status to help the Chinese people. This is a fact.
The rape and carnage depicted in this story is horrific. But sadly, it is actually just a small example of what actually happened in December, 1937 in Nanjing (if you are interested, Google Image: Nanjing 1937. Caution: very graphic images.). I suspect most of the critics of this movie have never heard of the horrendous brutality of the Nanjing (Nanking) Massacre. It's a shame because up to 300,000 people died in Nanjing during the events depicted in this movie.