The First PSSA Movie Night! September 29. 6:30 - 10:30pm

Meet up with your fellow political science enthusiasts to watch two brilliant and thought-provoking takes on war cinema from an Asian, rather than traditional Western perspective. Take this unique opportunity to see WWII from two unknown sides and share your thoughts.
Entry by donation, the movies (break time included) end by 10:30.
The event is brought to you by UBCO Political Science Student Association.

The movies are:

1) City of Life and Death (2010, 93% on RottenTomatoes.Com)
Synopsis: In December 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army laid siege to the Chinese capital of Nanjing, killing as many as 300,000 citizens, the details of which Japan and China dispute to this day. CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH is a bold re-creation of these events, told with startling humanism through the eyes of both victims and occupiers. Delving into the psychology of the Chinese struggle to survive and a Japanese soldier's struggle with his conscience, Lu's film is ultimately an indictment against the cruelty of war.

2) Grave of the Fireflies (1988, animated. 96% on RottenTomatoes.Com)

RT Consensus: An achingly sad anti-war film, Grave of the Fireflies is one of Studio Ghibli's most profoundly beautiful, haunting works.

Synopsis: Grave of the Fireflies opens on an evening in 1945, after Japan's surrender at the end of World War II; and in a train station, the young Seita dies alone. The rest of the movie tells us, in flashback, how things have come to this. Seita and Setsuko are two young Japanese children growing up in the waning days of World War II. Much to Seita's pride, their father is in the Japanese navy, and they live fairly content lives in Kobe despite rationing and the other privations of war. When their mother dies from burns suffered during an American fire-bombing raid, a distant aunt takes them in -- and conflict eventually forces the children to try to survive on their own. At first, Seita and his little sister enjoy their idyllic lives in the country, but harsh reality eventually settles in as Seita begins to understand the difficulties of taking care of a young child when both food and compassion are scarce.