《Time Out New York》：残酷的一章得完美铭记

　　《Time Out New York》2011年5月10日的报道

　　《南京！南京！》：中国历史上残酷的一章得到完美铭记

　　这部关于1937年南京大屠杀的中国战争影片展现了近年来少见的完美黑白影像——女人们蒙着眼罩静静地站在如漆的黑暗中，阳光一缕缕地射在硝烟弥漫的战场上，即使是砍头这一动作也表现得如此完美和艺术，使人想起了英格玛伯格曼电影中的思想者。这部电影让人想到了《辛德勒的名单》，美丽与魔鬼同在的那种令人敬而远之的美丽。

　　《南京》展示的不仅是它的艺术造诣。陆川一位有着政治敏锐感的电影人。他在电影中对角川的描述就好像纽约人播映本拉登在9/11之前内心也许曾有过着的复杂斗争。尽管这部电影的哲学思想内涵准确到位，但是作为一部战争题材的电影，还不够尖锐。

　　City of Life and Death

　　A brutal chapter of Chinese history gets too-beautiful enshrinement.

　　By Joshua Rothkopf

　　May 10, 2011

　　What does it mean that this Chinese-made war film—a sobering depiction of Japan’s 1937 three-day siege of Nanking, and its bloody aftermath—has some of the most luscious black-and-white imagery we’ve seen in ages? Captive women stand silently in dark-as-midnight blindfolds, sunlight gathers in shafts of smoky light, and even a beheading receives the impeccable composition of an Ingmar Bergman art-house thinker. (The work is by gifted cinematographer Cao Yu.) One should remember Schindler’s List, and the off-putting way beauty hung in the throat alongside evil.

　　City of Life and Death does a valiant job competing with its own prettiness. Director Lu Chuan (Kekexili: Mountain Patrol), a filmmaker whose career is sharpening into political acuity, has spent years fighting censors for his movie’s integrity. Lu has even managed to accommodate the sensitive perspective of a torn Japanese officer (Nakaizumi), which, given the horror this episode still carries in Chinese memory, would be like showing New Yorkers a conflicted Osama Bin Laden on the eve of 9/11. The movie skips along episodically; it’s not quite as sharp as a war narrative needs to be, even if its nightmarish psychology feels spot-on.