City of Life and Death

Almost unbearable to watch, this dramatisation of the terror wrought on Nanking by the Japanese army in 1937 is the second in a month, following the German film City of War. Director Chuan Lu is concerned with the victims and their aggressors. In shocking but masterly black-and-white images Chuan suggests a smouldering unreal city unhinged by horror. Somehow, it is rated 15.