Zhongguo dian ying ji tuan gong si

On December 9, 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army laid siege to the Chinese capital of Nanking, beginning a reign of terror that killed as many as 300,000 civilians, an infamous tragedy now referred to as the Rape of Nanking. The first big-budget fiction film by the Chinese to deal with the seminal event in their modern history, City of Life and Death is a visceral, heartbreaking portrait of life during wartime, and an unforgettable masterpiece of contemporary...

Set in 1920s Republican China, amid chaos created by feuding warlords the monks of the Shaolin Temple try to keep the people fed. A defeated warrior takes refuge with the monks, and tries to protect them when the temple is attacked by his former protégé.