If you couldn’t handle Schindler’s List, I would steer clear of City of Life and Death, but it deals with an important & unfortunately, unresolved part of WWII, the Rape of Nanking. Initially I found it hard to get my bearings-which characters were on which side–because it starts with the chaos of war, but as I watched it, I understood more. I am glad that the film mainly focused on the life of Chinese people instead of the Europeans & Americans who tried to defend them. Even though it was admirable to try to humanize the Japanese soldiers by having one sensitive portrayal out of a sea of malevolence, I thought it was unrealistic & was characteristic of the only negative points in the film. What is historically authentic & what is drama? Unfortunately, the death by rape was real. Barbaric.