Films & Shows Set during the Second Sino-Japanese War

The events and themes the archive follows through the Second Sino-Japanese War, in the order they happened, each with the titles that depict it. Press a name to read about it in the threads below.

1937
Nanjing MassacreAtrocity and PersecutionCity of Life and Death
1937–1945
Unit 731Atrocity and PersecutionWife of a Spy

Cinematic Introduction

Every title set during the Second Sino-Japanese War, by the decade it came out. A series is placed on the chart by its first season and counts as one title entity.

First on screen: City of Life and Death2009
Most recent: Wife of a Spy2020

12000s2010s12020s

FilmsSerieseach bar is the titles released that decade

Cast of Characters

The historical people the archive’s titles put on screen in this period, grouped by what they are known for. The number is how many titles set here they appear in.

Institution1

John Rabe1 title

Private individual1

Minnie Vautrin1 title

Historical Threads

A thread follows one event or historical theme across the archive, wherever and whenever it appears. Pick a tab to read one; they are in the order they are filed on the timeline. Pulling a thread opens up a narrowed timeline view filtered to every year that thread touches.

Nanjing Massacrepull it on the timeline

Event

This thread has no description written yet.

filed under 1937

City of Life and Death
Unsalted

Unit 731pull it on the timeline

Institution

This thread has no description written yet.

filed under 1937

Wife of a Spy
Unsalted

Also runs throughWorld War II

Places Connected to this Period

Every place the archive’s titles set in this period name, with each one nested under the larger place it sits inside where that place is here too. The number is how many titles set here name it.

Saltiness Across the Period

No title set here has been given a saltiness score yet. That is unrated, which is not the same as accurate.

Archive Density

4%2 of the 49 titles the archive sets between 1937 and 1945 carry the Second Sino-Japanese War tag.

This measure can help illustrate cinematic hotspots within a time period by comparing which years of the overarching, actual historical time period are backed up by a cinematic release.

19371 of 2 titles set in 1937 carry this period
19380 of 2 titles set in 1938 carry this period
19390 of 5 titles set in 1939 carry this period
19401 of 6 titles set in 1940 carry this period
19411 of 10 titles set in 1941 carry this period
19420 of 15 titles set in 1942 carry this period
19430 of 12 titles set in 1943 carry this period
19440 of 14 titles set in 1944 carry this period
19451 of 21 titles set in 1945 carry this period

9 years on the timeline fall inside the boundaries. The filled part of each bar is the share carrying this period.

Drama2 · 33%
War2 · 33%
History1 · 17%
Thriller1 · 17%

Share of the 6 genre taggings across 2 titles set in this period. A title filed under three genres is in three of these slices, so this is a share of taggings rather than of titles.

Credits

Directors

1Kiyoshi Kurosawa1 title3.5/5unsalted 2Lu Chuan1 title4.1/5unsalted

Films only. Co-directors are counted individually, so a director’s solo work and their collaborations are grouped together. Average saltiness ignores any title still unsalted.

Also on the Timeline

Part of and part of it are declared by the archive: one period counted as belonging to another, whatever their dates. Periods overlap freely so concurrent means the two spans share years, and the shared stretch is named. Bounded means it lies wholly inside this one, beginning and ending more than 10 years within its boundaries. Before and after are the nearest periods lying outside this one, with the gap in years shown instead. A shared thread is what the two have in common besides the calendar, and a period lying wholly outside this one can still share one.

Periods before, during, inside and after Second Sino-Japanese War, with their year ranges, the years they share with it, the threads they share with it, and how many titles the archive holds of each.
Relation	Period	Runs	Shared years	Shared threads	Titles
Part of	World War II	1937–1945	1937–1945	Unit 731	47 titles in the archive
Before	Roaring Twenties	1920–1929	8 years earlier	none shared	4 titles in the archive
Concurrent	Century of Humiliation	1839–1949	1937–1945	none shared	1 title in the archive
Concurrent	Great Depression	1929–1939	1937–1939	none shared	2 titles in the archive
Concurrent	Indian Independence	1885–1948	1937–1945	none shared	1 title in the archive
Concurrent	Interwar Years	1918–1939	1937–1939	none shared	14 titles in the archive
Concurrent	Western Front (World War II)	1939–1945	1939–1945	none shared	12 titles in the archive
Concurrent	Eastern Front (World War II)	1941–1945	1941–1945	none shared	8 titles in the archive
Concurrent	Pacific War	1941–1945	1941–1945	none shared	11 titles in the archive
After	Cold War	1946–1991	1 year later later	none shared	32 titles in the archive
After	French Indochina War	1946–1954	1 year later later	none shared	2 titles in the archive