City of Life and Death

Lu Chuan (born 1970) is a Chinese filmmaker and screenwriter. He is the son of the novelist, Lu Tianming.

Educated at the People’s Liberation Army International Relations University in Nanjing, Lu spent two years serving in the Army as a secretary to a general. After his time in the army, Lu attended the Beijing Film Academy for a masters degree in directing. While there, he studied the works of his favorite directors including Ingmar Bergman, Jim Jarmusch, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. His dissertation was on the American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.

Hailed as a major new voice in Chinese cinema, Lu’s first two films were small-budget productions which garnered both Chinese and international acclaim: 2002’s The Missing Gun and 2004’s Kekexili: Mountain Patrol. Kekexili won both a Golden Rooster and a Golden Horse best picture award.

Lu’s most recent film, the war drama City of Life and Death, was released in April 2009 to both critical and commercial success. At the same time, however, the film’s sympathetic portrayal of a Japanese soldier has aroused controversy. Lu Chuan won Achievement in Directing for the film at the 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

On making of the film City of Life and Death, Lu Chan had this to say:

“Not only was the massacre of civilians in Nanjing a disaster for humanity, China also suffered her worst defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. It is too painful an episode for the national psyche and has remained a forbidden subject in Chinese cinema. In the past, Chinese films often demonized Japanese soldiers, yet they never probed deeply enough into how and why the war happened. I made this film in order to open a window for more discourse on either side. It takes a more generous or open-minded attitude toward the perpetrators and offers a new perspective on history. Cinematically, it is also very different from past Chinese war films. It is entirely shot using handheld cameras. At the same time, I definitely do not want to use films like “Schindler’s List” or other Hollywood films with a war background as a model or reference. When casting actors to play Japanese soldiers, I deliberately passed over candidates who had spent time living in China, because they had become savvy around Chinese people and would make comments on Nanjing that they think are appropriate. Instead, I recruited stage actors who had never set foot in China. I wanted them to experience this country with all the culture shock that Japanese soldiers had when they first landed. All of them said they knew very little about this chapter of history, so their participation became a journey of discovery.” —wikipedia