Good history lesson

Rating: 8/10 (30 August 2013)

Very touching, well-done film. Several very graphic/disturbing scenes, but likely necessary to capture the feel of the time. A piece of history I knew virtually nothing about, so glad to have received my education in this manner.
Might have been nice to have sub-titles, though without speaking a word of Chinese or Japanese I could almost always get the essence of the many conversations that took place in other-than-English. I agree with another reviewer who commented that a romantic scene amidst all the carnage and atrocities in the movie seemed somewhat out-of-place. I think I'd have given more points if the screen-writer had seen fit to figure out a reasonable way to avoid going the obvious route in that scene. Kudos in particular to the girl (can't recall her name), who felt her father was a traitor. Outstanding performance from beginning to end!
The movie is quite long and I felt it could have been shortened a bit by culling some of the war footage in the early part of the movie. As a result, it took us a bit longer to "commit" to the movie. Overall, an excellent movie.