Kino International Lands CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH For US Distribution

Its about goddamned time!  Lu Chuan's 2009 drama about the Nanking Massacre, City of Life and Death has finally found a distributor in the United States.  Already released in many other countries around the world, I've been waiting for this news since I first saw the film in the Fall of 2009 on an import Blu-ray disc.  I've since seen it several other times, including once at the Dallas IFF in 2010, and it never hurts any less. 

City of Life and Death is one of several films dealing with the tragedy of Nanking, including John Rabe from Germany in 2009 that takes a radically different approach to the events as they happened.  I prefer City because it doesn't gloss over anything and manages to convey the sense of helplessness felt by the people of Nanking without feeling sensationalistic. 

The fact of the matter is that this film does not show everything that happened during that time period in Nanking, and sacrificed a lot of the more heinous details for the sake of avoiding an exploitative look at a tragic moment in not-to-distant Chinese history.  For a third look at this event, you could check out Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre, which, while extremely exploitative, does manage to tackle some of those more heinous details in a rather ingenious way. 

It appears that Kino International will be touring City of Life and Death starting May 11th with a two week run at Film Forum in NYC.  From there, the City begins a more extensive tour of the country, with many markets, I'm sure, yet to be determined.

Film Forum		New York		NY		May 11th - 24th
Landmark Kendall Square Cinema		Boston		MA		June 3rd - 9th
Landmark Ritz Five		Philadelphia		PA		June 3rd - 9th
Landmark E Street Cinema		Washington		DC		June 10th - 16th
Landmark Nuart Theatre		Los Angeles		CA		June 17th - 23rd
Landmark Lagoon Cinema		Minneapolis		MN		June 24th - 30th
Landmark Ken Cinema		San Diego		CA		June 24th - 30th
Landmark Tivoli Theatre		St. Louis		MO		July 8th - 14th
Landmark Varsity Theatre		Seattle		WA		July 8th - 14th
Landmark Midtown Art Cinema		Atlanta		GA		July 8th - 14th
Wexner Center for the Arts		Columbus		OH		July 22 and 23 ONLY

I have asked for details from Kino about this film's release, but I haven't gotten any yet.  Perhaps this post will get them to send me a trailer and a proper poster.  Come on Kino...

In the meantime, here is their temp trailer they've posted to youtube.  The opening music makes it sound way too much like a war film, which it is not, but the rest isn't so bad.