User Reviews

I thought The Flowers of War was one of the best foreign films I have ever seen. Ignore all bad reviews, movies are not suppose to be perfect, there was a point of view, a story and a plot that were all displayed understandably. I have read a few reviews on this film and I have noticed most people saying ''Its too graphic'', it is a war film and the graphic effect was a great way of showing the audience the true form of war and the violence the soldiers/people experienced.

The cast was wonderful, I was amazed by the outstanding performance of the young Chinese actresses, I had goosebumps when they started crying or displaying any form of drama. Christian Bale was wonderful, I have always loved his acting and I still do, he portrayed John Miller's character the way I imagined it. He was capable of making me believe that he was an American without any doubt. Ni Ni (Yu Mo) was an amazing character and actress, I have knowledge that it is her first picture and she had shown amazing talent along with all the other Chinese actresses.

Over all I suggest you should watch the film, it is great and inspirational and extremely entertaining to watch.

Zhang Yimou has crafted a beautifully shot and compelling story set inside horrific events. About all I knew of this movie was it was set in 1937 China and starred Christian Bale. Not knowing much allowed me to be completely open to the journey of the characters. This is an emotionally powerful story about people caught in circumstances for which there seems no hope of survival. The Japanese soldiers are shown as barbaric, but we do meet an officer who attempts to remain honorable though he must do his duty to his superiors. The violence in the movie is brutal, but not graphic or gratuitous. The choices and sacrifices made by the characters never seemed contrived. The arc of Christian Bale's character may seem 'predictable', but it is never false or 'convenient' to the story. All actors are excellent. Because they're foreign to me I had no idea who they are or their other work. At the screening I attended we were introduced to Ni Ni, who said this was her first film. She is both beautiful and compelling. I wish her a long career. Yimou, through his daughter, told us about his journey to make this movie - based on a novel, based on real events. He has told an amazing story that will stay with me for a long time.

I watched the movie in Beijing, twice. The second time I liked it more. This has to be one of the best Chinese films yet, if not the best. Some scenes are pretty brutal, but really worth watching, to say the least.

The director Zhang YiMou told a powerful, touching and beautiful story, while delivering stunning visual effects as always. All actors from different countries did an amazing job in making so many strong characters in 3 languages, not just the American 'priest', but also those prostitutes, the boy George, all the children, Japanese officers, and the Chinese 'traitor'.

Good movie is like a mirror, some people might get upset watching it, while others see love for others, respect for life, and the human spirit of fighting for peace out of tragedy. Each audience's reaction more or less reflects his/her personal value. The storytelling is objective so you can judge for yourself. In front of a masterpiece like this, people who ranked it very low deliberately because of stereotypes against China or whatever twisted reason (I KNOW YOU EXSIT ON THIS SITE), you need to sit down and think what's wrong with yourself, no matter how open-minded you claim you are.

Some say it is a propaganda production. I have to disagree here. Almost everything in this movie is based on real history, including how Japanese tortured Chinese war victims, how prostitutes stood up to protect other women during the Rape of NanJing, as well as how some westerners resided in China at the time helped local Chinese. Anyone who can pick up a few books or do a bit of research on internet knows it.

English is not my mother language so I can't write an review with big words like those professional critics do. However, this is the first time I feel so moved by a movie that I'd write an English review online to recommend it to viewers outside of China. Simply too good to miss.

If any Chinese simply walked out of the cinema cursing Japanese, I'd say the movie failed big time. However, both times I saw people left quietly, some still sobbing, and heard them saying how lucky they are to be born in this era and how precious peace is. For that reason, I applaud this film.

It is what it is. Horrible things happened in history. Hate and anger won't do any good today. Make peace with yourself and move on. Just like what George said in the movie, life is precious, it is not ours to throw away.

Honestly,I am not the kind of people easily being touched so deeply as to cry, and I didn't cry much during the movie indeed. I just walked out the movie theater,took a bus,got off the bus,bought a piece of bread, walked home while eating the bread,then all of sudden burst into tears.

Till now I still haven't walked out of it. There is so much to say, yet you don't know what to say nor how to say it. My only advice: you walk into the movie theater, forget whatever people said on the Internet, and just watch it with your own heart.

It is a great movie.

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")

Please watch this movie to get a glimpse of what it was like during World War II in China. My grandparents were in a different part of China that also got occupied where similar tragedies occurred. Though much much worse. Babies would be thrown in the air and caught on the bayonets as a game. There were killing games. My grandma can never tell her story without crying. The Japanese government deny this ever happened, they never apologized, and payed for their war crimes. They do not even have it written in their history books. All my grandparents want is for their story to be recognized as well as a formal apology. Thanks for reading.

With ruthless Japanese soldiers killing everyone in sight, a group of students hides inside a church. An American, John Miller (Christian Bale) is a mortician who must go to the church for the Priest's funeral. However, arriving there he finds there is no body. George (Tianyuan Huang), who was raised by the Priest, tells John there is no money to pay him.

Unwilling to leave without payment, John decides to stay a bit. A bunch of prostitutes - who were promised refuge at the Church - also arrives, to John's delight. What follows, is excellent character study, with great character development, and tales of heroism.

'The Flowers of War' disturbingly depicts the inhumane deeds of humans during warfare. During war, some soldiers, it seems, believe they have the right to completely abandon morals, and act selfishly, tormenting innocent victims. The film is very emotional and heart-warming in equal proportions. This is an outstanding film, focusing mainly on characters and their actions during times of desperation. The action sequences are awesome.

Based on fact, this was captivating. The film slows down significantly during the final act, yet remains interesting. Two and a half hours later, I would have liked the film to be even longer still. Very good performance by Christian Bale.

It's a great movie, very touching. The background is Nanking Massacre, at that cruel and desperate history moment, the director finds a special perspective to show us goodness, hope, sacrifice and humanity. Although I've seen so many war movies before, this one is different. I could not help crying through the whole movie, even I told myself "This is just another war movie, you should control your tears" But the movie has nothing to do with intendedly giving audience slushy emotional scenes. Even at some dark and sad moments, there is no background music.

All the actors and actresses give a stellar performance. Good story, good acting, beautiful scene. My teacher once said "Audience never cry for tragedy，but they will cry for good things."

Anyway, it's a powerful movie, highly recommended.

PS: All the victims in Nanking Massacre deserve a serious apology from Japanese.

The opening ten minutes is an amazing sequence that draws you into the streets of Nanking circa 1937. It's clear we are in the hands of a master director, with all the right elements in place, particularly the cinematography. The Chinese have been doing that part at least, better than anyone else for the past decade.

So it's quite a surprise to see Christian Bale pop up, speaking English. He's a fine actor and one of the film's strengths though his dialog at times is a little too modern. His character is the centerpiece to the story and it's easy to see why he took the role. It's a solid story set in a maelstrom, most of the drama taking place inside a church, being the literal calm inside the tornado. There are a number of dilemmas which drive the action, the same as all films, yet the incidents that initiate several of these dilemmas feel forced and a little trite. To give more information would require a spoiler and I don't want to give anything away. It's a shame as the situations themselves are dramatically effective and with so many of the right elements in place, they let the film down. It's essentially sloppy writing. It feels lazy which lessens your empathy with certain characters. I'd give it an 8 if it weren't for that.

Everything else works very well, the cast, the cinematography and direction as mentioned are the standouts, as well as some glorious sets. Some dialog scenes are too long and Bale's character transformation is a little too sudden and dramatic but the film will stay with you, hopefully encouraging you to research the background to the horror story that was the Nanking Massacre, its effects which still linger today.

I don't know whether or not you've heard about the Rape of Nanking, but everyone should know about it. Having captured the Chinese city, Japanese forces committed a near genocide against the population and devastated the city. Zhang Yimou's "Jīnlíng Shísān Chāi" ("The Flowers of War" in English) focuses on a Nanking church where an American (Christian Bale) takes up residence and then must protect the inhabitants from the occupying forces. The inhabitants are the schoolgirls, and also a group of prostitutes. Eventually, everyone faces a moral dilemma.

There are some very ugly scenes of the occupation. The Japanese occupation of China and Korea has never gotten the attention that the Nazi occupation of Europe has, but it was equally brutal (as was the Italian occupation of Ethiopia). The main focus here is on the events inside the church, but there is ample focus on the atrocities committed by the Japanese. The movie does a very good job in every way. It is always important to tell these stories so that they never happen again. I very much recommend the movie.

PS: Bale had previously starred in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun", about a boy who gets separated from his parents in Japanese-occupied China. I also recommend that one.

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

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Someone wrote and I quote : "there was never a moment of this movie that will bring tears in someone's eyes". Whomever wrote this is not Chinese for sure! I started crying right after 15 minutes in the cinema .This whole movie's dialog is in Nan Jing Hua (local accent mandarin ). Sounds funny at beginning , but it's more easy to bring audience into the story with characters . Zhangyimou's movie are famous for bright colors and nice view since he use to be cameraman. But this movie is so much more than the visual! Color still pretty though, the paper shop, those QiPao, girls make-up , everything is pretty . I guess to ruin the beautiful things defines the tragedy. My friend who watched it before told me do not watched it in the morning , because it will upset you whole day. So I went to cinema in the afternoon, and I could sleep until 5 am this morning. Comparing to Zhang Yi Mou's earlier work like " hero", this is definitely his best work in 10years!

I am not really familiar with the details of the Rape of Nanking in the late 1930s. However, people from this side of the globe are very familiar with the suffering brought about by the brutal Japanese Imperial Army throughout Asia. In our country, many movies have shown Japanese brutality during the World War II. I thought I would be ready for this movie.

"The Flowers of War" tells the story of a roguish American mortician John Miller (Christian Bale) who was sent to a Catholic church/convent in Nanking to prepare the body of the priest for burial, who was then under siege by the Japanese. When he gets there, he found he also needed to take care of a group of convent girls led by the spirited Shu, a young caretaker boy George, and later, a gaggle of exotic prostitutes led by the classy beauty Yu Mo (Ni Ni). Everyone will go through a touching life-changing story arc that will show how even the most unlikely of people can become heroes in extreme adversity.

Director Zhang Jimou returns to form in this movie. He was relentless in the first half we are taken through a continuous barbaric carnage perpetrated by the Japanese soldiers. These parts are reminiscent of the frankly violent blood-spurting "Saving Private Ryan" beach scene. The terror is very palpable. While the scenes of soldiers being shot and killed were hard to watch, the several minutes of violence to children was even harder to bear!

The second half is more dramatic with a some contrived cheesy moments. The character of the kind-hearted Japanese officer Hasegawa was a nice counter-balance to their other heinous acts of atrocity. I also felt the long sequence when a couple of prostitutes sneaking out to retrieve trivial things in their brothel was a rather unnecessary long detour. There will even be a scene that will remind you of Gwyneth Paltrow's body wrap scene in "Shakespeare in Love." However, when the film reaches its climax, everything falls back into place and the noble message is delivered on point. This movie may be difficult to watch because of the scenes of violence, but this is worth watching because the story of heroism and redemption was very good, well-told and well-executed.

Watched this movie last night in a packed Beijing cinema on its opening night. First off, I would like to say that Christian Bale traces perfectly the path of enlightenment that follows Wild-West style bandit obsessed with money becoming priest and father-figure in all but religious training. The film is in roughly 50% English, 35% Chinese and 15% Japanese, so there is a real assimilation of different languages and cultures coming together. However, this unfortunately leads to some moments which seem disconcertingly humorous. For example, there is one point where a Japanese general confesses to priest-figure Bale that he likes music; the triviality of such statement in the midst of mass-murder seems absurd enough, but it is also delivered in a dead-pan way with broken English. I could not help but burst out laughing, even though none of the Chinese in the cinema saw any form of humour in it. Indeed, I think that as a Westerner watching this film, my emotional response is not as visceral as it would be to a Chinese person. That is only natural, but it leads to a completely different interpretation of the movie. Some of the murder scenes are brutally horrific to a Chinese person, so much so that the wonderful filmography which permeates throughout the movie may not be fully appreciated. The hues are brown and green, earthy, rugged and militaristic for the most part. Yet there are occasionally beautiful trims of colour, the church's stained-glass window, the clothes on the washing line left out to dry. A sign, no doubt, of the beauty of humanity in the midst of dreadful war. It has been suggested this movie is propaganda. I don't know if I entirely agree with that. There is no positive way to spin what was a shameful event in Japan's history, and for what it's worth I think that Zhang Yimou delineates well the soldiers occasional insecurity, homesickness, and humanisation brought on by paranoia and pressure from above. A movie well-worth watching, and which I would like to watch for a second time to re- establish which moment are intentionally humorous, which moments are unintentionally humorous, and which moments are tragic. Kudos for Zhang Yimou for tackling such a visited topic (That of the Nanjing massacre) which a freshness, and even more kudos to Christian Bale for stepping up to the plate and giving in a great performance.

In the 1930s, japan moved farther into china on its conquering charge. Miller (christian bale) is searching for a cathedral in order to help bury a priest. Arriving at the city of nanking, already under attack, he must help protect the women and children from the invaders. And what a group of women; a mix of young students, and prostitutes, which have been able to mostly keep the soldiers out of the cathedral. But when the girls are forced to go sing at an officer's party, this may be their chance for escape. It's long, but good. Gets a little overly-complicated at times. Based on the novel by geling yan. The plot is very similar to inn of the sixth happiness, from 1958. Flowers of war is directed by yimou zhang. He had directed the awesome red lantern back in 1991. Check it out if you haven't seen it. He won a bafta award for that one.

I loved it, adored it.. too bad this movie was not well publicized but still Zhang Yimou could never go wrong, I have seen all his movies and keeps amazing us one after another. Every single cast is brilliant, the story, the plot and definitely a great choice for Christian Bale, you can laugh and cry at the same time and connect with every single person. This movie touched me a lot and it has been a long time we haven't seen such great movies, if you are expecting martial arts coming from Zhang Yimou well you will be disappointed but once the movie starts you can't take your eyes out of it.. I would rate 20 if there was .. you should go see this movie .. my favorite of 2011

A mortician called to a church in war torn Nanking finds a group of teenage girls, along with one teenage boy, who are alone, scared and trying to stay alive. Not long after his arrival, a group of ladies from the red light district find their way into the church while seeking safety and shelter. The Japanese soldiers are never too far away and all too eager to violate young girls. The mortician starts out as an unlikeable character, he soon has a change of heart and sets out to try and help the group find their way out of Nanking.

This is a good movie. I think that it showed the atrocities of war without being too graphic even in the most brutal of moments. There is a bit of a romantic angle playing out but it is mainly a wartime drama.

My disappointment was in wanting more from the ending. I also wished there had been more suspense in the film. In my opinion, it's not the best but is better than just average. Not a bad watch.

Well, where to start on this one. What an execrable mess. This story loosely concerns an American neer-do-well who is inexplicably rambling around Nanking looking for a Church. This guy is apparently a mortician, but where he came from (has he turned up on the wrong film set?) and why he has chosen the middle of the rape and pillage of Nanking to do this is unclear. Inexplicably he seems unconcerned about the several hundred thousand other bodies lying around Nanking, he is fixated on attending to the body of a priest at this church. Given the movie later goes to great pains to show what a dirty rotten scoundrel he is, why he seems honour or duty bound to do this is unclear. It seems he is only doing it for the money but unless the pay for attending to a dead priest is several million dollars you would think he would have been better off staying in his hotel room. While Chinese civilians are being slaughtered left and right our hero is luckily found by the only Japanese soldier that does not shoot people. And luckily, for no apparent reason, a wall falls on this soldier. And luckily, out of the half million people in Nanking he could meet, he comes across 2 girls from the very church he wants to go to. What a guy. Meanwhile a group of girls are fleeing from something - apparently they were out having a picnic when the Japanese inconsiderately decided to attack. A young Chinese man insists on counting them every 10 seconds. Also meanwhile a certain General Li is out there with his men, in the way that Generals always are, right? A soldier says to him something like "General, we must go, everyone else has gone" but our heroic general is made of sterner stuff. Another group of civilians is being pursued by Japanese troops, but inexplicably, the Japanese don't shoot at them. We see ridiculous CGI shots of bullets tearing through people, an overhead shot of a ridiculously unreal exploding tank....and on, and on and on.

All of this in the first 3 minutes, by which time I was shaking my head in disbelief and started reading a book. I lasted through about 20 minutes before I switched it off. Kudos to those that can sit through more of this debacle.

I don't suppose you can blame Christian Bale. I guess he used the script he was given and "acted" the way he was told to. I guess he was made an offer he couldn't refuse, took the money and ran.

It goes without saying that the Rape of Nanking was a horrific event that everyone should know about and remember. However to use these events as period backdrop to such a ridiculous little pot boiler is shameless exploitation.