Synopsis
A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.
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Cast
- Christian BaleJohn Miller
- Ni NiYu Mo
- Tong DaweiMajor Li
- Zhang XinyiShujuan Meng
- Shigeo KobayashiLt. Kato
- Atsuro WatabeColonel Hasegawa
- Shawn DouChinese Soldier
- Paul SchneiderTerry
- Cao KefanMr. Meng
- Huang TianyuanGeorge Chen
Recommendations
- 80
Boxoffice Magazine
Ultimately an inspiring, stirring and unforgettable human drama in the face of a horrifying war. It is highly recommended. - 70
Variety
Scene by scene, The Flowers of War is an erratic and ungainly piece of storytelling, full of melodramatic twists and grotesque visual excesses (a bullet pierces first a stained-glass window and then a girl's neck), which are nonetheless delivered with startling conviction. - 50
Slant Magazine
This film has too many weak, unconnected strands (what's the subplot about the narrator's father doing here anyway?), too much overtly expositional dialogue, and too unfocused a narrative to really cohere. And then there's that whole matter of expendable whores. - 50
San Francisco Chronicle
Affecting at times, but finally feels overblown and heavy-handed. - 40
Village Voice
With The Flowers of War, Zhang mostly just proves that there's no tragedy too terrible that it can't be turned into an operatic pageant - human suffering reduced to visual showmanship. - 40
Time Out
Zhang's mixture of unsparing violence, mawkish sentimentality and garish flourishes creates one uncomfortable aesthetic. - 40
The New York Times
Mr. Bale, turning in a respectable if oddly chipper performance under the circumstances, has the unfortunate task of playing a character who doesn't really add up. - 40
New York Daily News
The biggest problem, however, is the way Zhang romanticizes the unimaginably awful, turning gold-hearted prostitutes and virginal orphans into cinematic martyrs. Though his talents are vast, there may be too much truth in this particular story to suit his extravagant tastes.
