The Flowers of War

one of the few movies that i can't rewatch cause of how painful and terrifying it was.

loved this movie one of my favorites I have watched it many times can't get over 😭😭😭 it

source: The Flowers of War

Exquisite. Easily one of the most beautiful films ever made. Moving, riveting, poetic, visually stunning, and dramatically gut wrenching. Absolutely everything you could ever want a movie to be. Poignant, poetic, full of beauty and life. Not without moments of sentimentality, perhaps even, briefly, bordering on the saccharine. Still only those hardest of heart would be unmoved by this visual and emotional banquet. If you are not moved by this film. You quite possibly may not be human. An incredible mix of beauty and tension. Eye-dropping cinematography, heart pounding action. Yet full of life, humour and folly. Plays directly to your heart strings and plucks every chord with virtuosity. In a just world this kind of film would be breaking box office records. But alas we prefer on mass to fix our eyes of adolescent spectacle. Consider how big the box office returns will be when Bale dons a bat suit this summer. It's funny how a human interest story recreating events in history can be of so little interest to so many humans, the very ones who create history. It seems we would much rather gaze in wonder at our fantasies than contemplate our actions. I urge anyone who loves cinema to see this film. It is a work of masterful craftsmanship.

In 1937, the cynical mortician John Miller (Christian Bale) arrives at a Catholic Church in Nanjing that is under protection of the Red Cross to bury the local priest during the Japanese attack to the Capital of China. He finds only student girls and one young boy in the convent and he decides to spend the night in the church and travel on the next day. Soon a group of prostitutes from the local brothel by the river breaks in the church seeking a sanctuary and they hide in the basement. On the next morning, a Japanese platoon breaks in the Church and when the soldiers see the girls, they try to rape them. John wears the priest costume and poses like a priest to the invaders. He tries unsuccessfully to stop the Japanese, but the Chinese Major Li (Dawei Tong), who is the only survivor of his troop, prepares traps using bombs and destroys the whole platoon. Now John needs to decide whether he leaves Nanjing in the last ship or stays in the church protecting the naive girls. "Jin líng shí san chai" is an unrealistic view of the Rape of Nanking in 1937. The plot has the usual exaggeration of blockbusters that spoils the film. John Miller is a cynical mercenary that refuses to escape with his compatriot in the last ship to stay with the Chinese girls in an unbelievable redemption of a character. The two prostitutes leave the shelter to bring a pair of rings and a string for her liuqin is also a ridiculous situation. The attitude of the prostitutes switching places with the student girls is also hard to believe. The best film about this shameful invasion is "Nanjing 1937". My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Flores do Oriente" ("Eastern Flowers")

Hated all Zhang Yimou's movies after "To Live". But "Flowers of War", Wow! much better than "Schindler's list". Although "Flowers of War" is almost equal first half of "Saving Private Ryane" plus second half of "Schindler's List", there is something more. Zhang Yimou wants an Oscar. But I don't think he will get it with this one. Nonetheless, you will be entertained by the action scenes. Then you will be touched. At the end, you will cry. Ironically, recently there is news of Christian Bale went to visit a blind Chinese human rights lawyer who is confined at home by local police in Shandong Province china. Bale being stopped and roughed up by local police was viewable on youtube. Though the situation was not a bit deadly as in the movie, the local police gave Bale similar attitude like the Japanese soldiers in the movie. Bale fled in a van with the camera crew, reminding viewers the end of the movie.

Famed Asian director Yimou Zhang's big budget version of the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 is one of the most baffling and tonally uneven films you ever likely to lay witness to. What we have here is a film that at one moment will be laughably comical and the next deadly serious (and rightfully so for events that occurred during this occupation were truly horrendous). It's also a movie that revels in frequent unbelievably bad character decisions and acts as a showcase for one of famed British thespian Christian Bale's worst screen performances. In a film filled with downright atrocious acting qualities and annoying character attributes Bale comes off worse in his role as unlikeable American John Miller. John is a man that whilst eventually doing good has a journey that is just unable to engage on a level that feels realistic. It's a thankless type of role for Bale but one senses that this was a real showy piece that failed to eventuate into anything outside of the Chinese market. The hardest thing to fathom about this picture is the fact that it should have been so ripe for a heart string pulling look at history. Much of the films failings must be befallen to director Zhang who seems more interested in framing a shot in slo-mo or have one of his character's stand near a multi-coloured glass mosaic for pretty lighting effects than actually focussing on the war that rages around them. It can't be overlooked in analysis also that for a film costing north of 90 million American dollars it's a slight event picture that rarely ventures out from the church in which the survivors of the invasion hold out in, which seems a wasted opportunity considering the stories just waiting to be told outside the churches gates. Obviously striking a chord in its country of origin (where it's one of China's highest grossing films of all time), viewers (who rate it a staggeringly high 7.5 on IMDb) and some industry experts (the film was nominated for Golden Globe) Flowers of War feels like a mighty misstep of a film upon watching now. Much time has passed since Flowers of War was on our big screens and judging by its barely there reputation now it's not hard to argue as to why many have forgotten about it entirely. 1 impromptu wig out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinions check out - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com

This film tells the story of a group of Nanjing prostitutes, a group of young Chinese Catholic Nuns, and a dissolute American, Christian Bale, who take refuge at a Catholic church during the Japanese massacre at Nanjing. Chinese director Zhang Yimou directs this sometimes engrossing, sometimes melodramatic movie. The film begins with a sort of "Saving Private Ryan" battle scene between Japanese troops and Chinese Nationalist forces, with the later efforts of a single Chinese soldier who survives this first encounter straining credulity in single-handed combat with a regiment of Japanese soldiers. The film strongly focuses on the self-sacrifice of the prostitutes who wish to save the young teenage Chinese nuns. Bale's character, John Miller, also finds redemption in his efforts to help the young girls survive, and in his own self-sacrifice when he forgoes an opportunity to escape Nanjing. Miller also finds love with one of the prostitutes, but the physical consummation of his love seems out of place in a city filled with death and rape. The film actually manages a few hard-to- believe developments in its story, but it will undoubtedly succeed in pulling more than a few Western movie-goer's heart strings. There have been early accusations that Zhang has made a piece of propaganda filming for China's leaders. The portrayal of Japanese soldiers has been described as one-dimensional, but I don't think the film is any worse than several Western film's depictions of German Nazis, such as in The Pianist, Schindler's List and others. Besides, the most conservative estimates assert tens of thousands of Chinese women were raped by the Japanese during the Nanjing Massacre, and many tens of thousands of Chinese were butchered, so this is not a movie about a routine city siege of the Second World War. Having said that, it does not seem as though Chinese government financial support for another in a string of recent films about the Nanjing Massacre is the best possible method for improving Sino-Japanese relations.

highly expected but then it turned out just flat and boring. we, my wife and i, never got connected with this pathetically written and directed movie. for those who played in this movie, i couldn't blame them did poor jobs since the screenplay, the dialog, the directing failed to get them connected with the emotion and sentiment that should be there in this worthless story written by a Chinese female author who lives in America. there were moments that we all felt the dialog in this film sounded like translated Chinese. from the very beginning, the plot already showed its shallowness and contrite of the formulaic way how the Chinese would make the battle scenes against the marching winning Japanese military force. there were typical formatted dialog and scenes that the Chinese communist party would use as a MUST to describe the kmt party and its army were not enthusiastic to fight against the Japanese, that's so typical way to fool their own people by claiming the communist insurgents were the only Chinese who loved their country, their people and they were the only party that fought the Japanese. yet the truth was already widely known to the world outside china, the communist insurgent force rarely engaged to fight the Japanese but only ambushed the kmt national army whenever they could. they were just fighting gorilla war against their own people and let the kmt led army to fight the war. it's just so contrive and disgusting to hear the similar dialog in every movie out of communinit china that they were the only people who cared about china's future, they were the liberator of china, the only hope for the Chinese people. but in the meantime, soldiers who stayed and sacrificed their lives in this movie were those from the kmt army, they were the only people who stayed and fought in vain to stop the Japanese invasion forces. by mentioning this historical fact, it also reminded me that the governing Chinese communist party just announced to ban most of the historical genre dramas related to any former dynasty, because those dramas only mirror imaged and embarrassed the current regime, not just on a par with all the corruptions in Chinese history but surpassed them thousand times. the other thing that made me feel that in this film, the Chinese women, young female catholic students or the Chinese prostitutes, they were just so pathetic in this movie. their country was in turmoil and their country people were killed by the Japanese, but these women were still so ridiculously looked down upon each other, they fought their own worthless social class turf war in a church surrounded by the invasion Japanese force, even the usage of a toilet got a social taboo. director zhang seemed to be non-exist in this film, just let the lifeless storyline to pan out without any personal touch. by signing c.b. and asked him to play a role in this movie also proved to be meaningless but wasted a lot money. from the very beginning of this movie, i never got a chance to get connected with any character in this pathetic movie. what i got were: boring storyline, boring scenario, boring characters, boring historical background, boring directing. there was nothing like watching similar movies about Jewish people were massacred by the Nazis, absolutely nothing worthwhile to watching. there was absolutely no emotional or sentimental sadness this movie ever touched us.