Lu Chuan follows up his vibrant Tibetan-set action film Kekexili: Mountain Patrol with this spectacularly visceral epic on the notorious fall of Nanking, when the Japanese army invaded and pillaged the Chinese city with genocidal consequences; an estimated 300,000 Chinese were killed in a period of weeks. Beginning with the city's invasion and occupation, the film creates a startling immediacy by following the conflict through a series of characters (many based on real-life individuals). A Chinese soldier and an idealistic female teacher try to survive in the bombed-out ruins, while a Nazi merchant's interpreter and a naïve Japanese soldier attempt to make sense out of the chaos. The film's almost primal black-and-white imagery and enveloping wall of sound attain an intensity that few films have achieved, but Lu is ultimately more concerned with capturing the utter chaos and confusion of war, and the courage and compassion of humanity.