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City of Life and Death

Films

Drama: War & Disaster

01/04/2012

BBC Four - City of Life and Death

Drama telling the horrifying story of the 'Rape of Nanking' in China in 1937.

Drama telling the story of the 'Rape of Nanking' in 1937 through figures including a conscience-stricken Japanese soldier and a Nazi businessman who saved many Chinese civilians.

Japanese forces invaded Nanjing, the former capital of the Republic of China on December 9th 1937. Throughout the following six weeks, soldiers raped thousands of women and annihilated hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians - with mass executions, crowds mown down by firing squads and victims digging their own graves. Few events carry the ugly and sickening connotations of what has become known as the 'Rape of Nanking'. Director Lu Chuan tells the horrifying story through several figures, including a conscience-stricken Japanese soldier and John Rabe, a Nazi businessman who would ultimately save thousands of Chinese civilians' lives.

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