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This review may contain spoilers
"So many people have died, even hell is packed."
The Flowers of War was released shortly after the 74th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre. A drunk Westerner with no political alliance, a dozen church school girls, and a dozen prostitutes take refuge in a cathedral compound as the rest of the city lies in ruins. Surrounded by Japanese soldiers, the unlikely group of people will have to work hard to find a way to survive.This film is not for the faint of heart. Dead bodies line the streets and civilians are shot whenever found. Children are raped and adult women are gang raped, tortured, and murdered. Where this film did not work for me, and I say this as an ardent Zhang Yi Mou fan, there was too much sexual flirting and beautiful images in such a stark and unsavory story. The film was based on a novella inspired by an American missionary's diary. The missionary, Minnie Vautrin, fought to protect students and refugees at Ginling College where she was president. Instead of someone like Minnie, we were given John Miller, a drunken reprobate. He transformed into a heroic knight willing to do whatever was necessary to save the girls overnight. His character growth was shockingly unbelievable. The prostitutes had the same saintly transformations just as quickly. We never learned the names of most of the school girls or prostitutes. It ended up being simple. Virgins must be saved. Prostitutes are expendable. I thought John's makeover time came across too lighthearted when the mortician was basically working his magic on women who were going to a terrible death. The Japanese were almost uniformly categorized as evil. It's not surprising. With a national trauma of 200,000-300,000 killed and countless women raped, that's a wound that does not heal easily.
Christian Bale was serviceable as John. Though a big name, his acting style doesn't appeal to me. John wasn't a very sympathetic set of western eyes to view the atrocities through. Ni Ni in her first role showed she had acting chops, even more impressive in a role that called for her to speak English much of the time. Her Yu Mo was seductive, strong, and sorrowful. I hated that they had Yu Mo fall for the uncouth John, it was more relatable when she used him for his western face to help save her and her friends. Huang Tian Yuan as sweet George made the most of his pivotal and heroic role.
Every action in this film was designed to elicit an emotional reaction and get the viewer's tear ducts flowing. It felt too contrived most of the time. It was hard to emotionally bond with female characters, both young and older, who had no names. The time was catastrophically devastating and those who survived the murderous onslaught faced horror after horror, there's no easy way to put that on film. Had there been more believable character growth and fewer flirty moments, I could have gotten on board with this film better.
9/27/28
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The Horrors of War with Flowers in the Midst
Usually I don't watch anything with the topic war because I know I struggle to stomach it and will not be able to get over it anytime soon. What made me go for this movie was the hope it might not end with tragedy after reading some comments outside of MDL about it. (No spoilers about it here)I recommend this movie with caution because it's not for everyone. If you're sensitive to war topics, cruelty, rape and violence you might be better off by skipping this or watch it in two sessions instead of all at once. (I fast forwarded a few of the gun shooting and pursuit scenes.)
This movie does not cover up the ugly, but shows with very distressful images the characters fear and feel of hopelessness. For example the young girls running from a superiority of Japanese soldiers who wanna catch them alive, you may guess why. In chaos of war not everyone comes out unscathed.
The message of the movie is worth it though as it not only shows the worst in war but also the good. How people gather to help each other, take risks and grow with the challenge.
I liked the movie. I can't say I enjoyed it, because I do not "enjoy" watching violent topics but the movie is well-written and produced. Give it a chance if you consider watching it.
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I DON'T ENJOY WAR MOVIES, I SELDOM DO SO I
TOOK A CRACK AT THIS ONE. I WANTED TO SEE W
WHAT WOULD CHRISTIAN BALE BRING TO THIS
MOVIE. I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED IT WAS A GREAT
PERFORMANCE.
THE MOVIE IS BASED ON A HISTORICAL EVENT. THINGS
I KNOW WE WISH TO FORGET, WHEN MAN EATS MAN.
I WISH WE COULD LEARN AND NOT REPEAT HISTORY
TIME AFTER TIME.
THE CHARACTERS ARE DOWN TO EARTH IN THEIR FEARS
AND LOVE. AWESOME ACTORS. YOU CAN RELATE TO THEM,
YOU HAVE EMPATHY FOR THEM, YOUR HEART WILL GO OUT
TO THEM.
I GO OUT OF MY WAY TO RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE.
ENJOY!
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This review may contain spoilers
Beautiful cinematography and gripping story, but difficult to watch
You need to set aside more time to watch this movie, it is difficult to watch it in 1 setting. That said, the rape scenes are less graphic than other war time movies that I've seen. The director cleverly deployed the girls' fear, struggles, running away from the enemy soldiers to convey the feelings of hopelessness and distress to us, the audience.The movie starts with the convent girls running across a part of town in Nanjing, with the enemy soldiers in pursuit. An American mortician is also running, but towards a church. He was sent to the church due to the passing of the pastor, and had unexpectedly arrived in the midst of Japanese invasion. I love the war scenes here. The gun shooting choreography is clear, clean-cut, easy for audience to understand (there are war movies in attempt to be realistic, end up with very confusing shots and difficult to understand).
The american and some of the convent girls (a few would die) then arrived at the church. As they were settling in, a group of prostitutes from the town brothel attempt to seek refuge in the church....
Do note the story is told from the pov of 1 of the convent girls. Hence there is no proper closure to the story, as movie ended when she escaped out of Nanjing.
Usually when there is a foreigner (caucasian) in asian movies, the role is like an object, just there to faciliate the plot. But here, Christian Bale fully participate in the story events. And we get to see his character changes (can't say more, don't wanna spoil it for you) as the story develops. Excellent performance by all the actors. Ni Ni was stunning in her debut! It is unbelievable that she had no prior acting or modeling experience.
To keep to the authenticity, dialogues are in Nanjing dialect (not mandarin, i had to read the subtitles too...), English and Japanese. And all the actors spoke their own lines.
This movie is stunning in its cinematography and storytelling. It grips you right from the start, you would close your eyes at the intense scenes and sigh when they escaped. Another masterpiece by Zhang Yimou.
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Likes
- the music really fit the ambience of the scenes and added a lot of value to the cinematography
- great actresses and actors. Acted so well. Were true to the context and the emotions were so raw, I could feel for them.
- the white guy made sense. For once.
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Well made and shocking.
Director Zhang Yimou does not shy away from horrors. He avoids pushing our noses into the violence, The Flowers of War is after all a drama and not a splatter film. And it is a drama, a well-made and thoroughly well-acted one.Christian Bale notwithstanding, The Flowers of War was not made with American money (and apparently only the second all-Chinese film ever with a Hollywood star in the lead role), which may explain why it never made it to cinemas in Sweden. Because films that are not Swedish or English rarely do. It's certainly not a masterpiece, I don't intend to go that far, but surely there would have been room for a larger audience.
In The Flowers of War, Christian Bale plays a not-quite-clean funeral director, John Miller, who goes to a Catholic church in Nanjing, China, to take care of the dead priest there. But it is not very simple, because it all takes place during the so-called Nanjing Massacre, and there is chaos both on the way to and in the church. Where there is also only a group of children, with one exception consisting of girls, left. The not-quite-clean-haired undertaker decides to stay for a while, he has to get paid, and soon finds himself in a protective position he never asked for.
A history lesson might be in order, if you, like me, have never heard of the massacre in question. There was a six-week period after the then-capital of China, Nanjing, fell into Japanese hands, during a Japanese invasion of the country in 1937 (the Second Sino-Japanese War), when invading soldiers in the most heinous ways raped and murdered mostly Chinese civilians in and proximity to the capital.
Director Zhang Yimou (who has, among other things, fairly well-known Hero and Flying Daggers to his name) does not shy away from horrors. He avoids shoving our noses into the violence, The Flowers of War is after all a drama and not a splatter film, but it is somehow, in or out of picture, ever-present. From the initial attack to the aftermath of inhuman acts. Efficient. Nasty.
And it is a drama, a well-made and downright well-acted one, and without checking numbers I'd venture to guess that it was made on a sizable budget. Then it's a bit of a shame that it falls a few times along the way. There are no deep pits, but various small shortcuts in the story and one or the other forced emotional moments can still disturb. Although it's clear, by all means, it's still a lot better than the average modern Spielberg film.
Comments regarding Christian Bale's effort should be redundant, at least if we assume that people generally think his efforts are shitty. And I belong to these general types.
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