Reviews of The Flowers of War 2011
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Unsurprisingly, Chinese cinema has tackled the horrors of the Rape of Nanking before, most recently in the harrowing but brilliant City of Life and Death, but the brutal Japanese occupation of 1937 was always likely to be a constant source of cinematic drama, whether these stories are historically accurate or fictitious. If anything it is a surprise that one of China’s most celebrated directors, Zhang Yimou, hadn’t tackled the subject before. In The Flowers of War, Yimou tells the story…
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I love it when I see a film that flew completely under the radar and I end up loving it. I only knew this film existed because I'd added it to my watchlist after looking up Christian Bale on IMDB. It's a very heartfelt film that's beautifully shot and features an excellent performance by Bale. I recommend seeking it out if you haven't seen or heard of it.
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I hadn't seen the trailers for this, read nothing, except seeing 4 out of 5 stars on the end of a review. So I was looking forward to seeing it, except it wasn't playing at my local cinemas! However it was in my local supermarket on DVD! So I bought it!
Now I really like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, two of my favourite films, by Yimou Zhang. I do own Curse of the Golden Flower and will watch that…
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Wunderschön umgesetzte Erzählung einer modernen Legende um zwei Gruppen sehr unterschiedlicher Frauen, die in den Wirren des Krieges füreinander einzustehen lernen.
Für mich ein weiterer Indikator, bei dem ich realisiert habe, wie sehr Hollywoods ehemalige Stärke beim Erzählen von Geschichten, bereits relativiert wird und vielfach bereits überholt ist von Asien... bzw. - wenn ich genau nachdenke - schon immer einen würdigen Mitspieler hatte in Asien - allen voran, den großen Meistern des Kinos in Japan. -
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Occasionally too melodramatic and Zhang Yimou's sumptuous visual style doesn't always sit entirely fittingly with the carnage he is depicting.
That said, it does look extraordinary and the tale is told simply and effectively. It's emotionally stirring but with the odd shaft of light.
Christian Bale's performance is fascinating and he pulls off a mix of roguish charm and sensitive intensity with a calculated restraint.
Satisfyingly dramatic as befits the horrific subject of the Rape of Nanking, but also emphasises the human scale - and, despite Bale's presence, not from a cloyingly Western perspective.
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'The Flowers of War' was amazing. What a sad and gripping story from World War II. It's good to see films that tell stories from other countries during that war. The Nanking Massacre was a horrible thing. Sadly I didn't know much about it b...efore seeing this and looking up some info about it. Also was a good conversation starter with a fellow employee who is of Asian descent and said he saw it and told me some things about what happened.
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A sad story about a class of school girls and a group of prostitutes who hide out in a Catholic church in Nanking during the invasion of Japanese soldiers, who find an unlikely hero in a drunken mortician from America. Very beautifully filmed as we have come to expect from Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower) but why he selected Christian Bale for the lead I do not know, a good actor yes, but I found this film did not suit him one bit! Or maybe it was the whole idea of his character I did not like!
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Firstly, I am not familiar with the politics and the subsequent rows about the film and the labels of propaganda thrown at it, so I will not insult those that do know about this by trying to form an opinion on something I know nothing about. This review is based solely on the film itself. Any conclusions drawn therefore, are from what the film had to say, and nothing more.
The film concerns itself with the ransacking of Nanking in…