Susan Granger’s review of “Flowers of War” (Wrekin Hill Entertainment)
Set during Japan’s 1937 invasion of China, this epic drama is told from a young girl’s point of view. Shu (Zhang Xinyl) lives at a Roman Catholic convent called Winchester Cathedral, where a dissolute, opportunistic American, John Miller (Christian Bale), takes shelter during the vicious, violent siege of Nanking, then China’s capital. A mortician by trade, he’s been sent to prepare a recently deceased priest’s body for burial but he’s trapped behind the church’s high walls, along with a dozen desperate prostitutes from a local brothel who have also sought refuge there, causing indignation among the innocent girls.
Imbibing from the communion wine supply, Miller takes an interest in gorgeous Yu Mo (Ni Ni), a sophisticated courtesan who speaks English, but she withholds favors, promising, “If you help us, I will help you in ways that you can’t imagine. All of us will.”
Donning the late priest’s robes, despite protests from the church’s young warden George (Huang Tianyan), Miller tries in vain to guard students from assault by a band of marauding Japanese soldiers who invade the cavernous sanctuary, shouting, “We’ve got virgins!”
Soon after, a Japanese colonel (Atsuro Watable) appears, apologizing and promising protection. But, soon after, he demands that the prepubescent girls sing at a celebratory party for Japanese officers, which everyone knows will result in their rape and massacre. That’s when the prostitutes engage in an uncharacteristically heroic act of self-sacrifice in order to shield Miller’s attempted escape with the girls.
Based on Yan Geling’s historical novel “13 Flowers of Nanjing,” weakly scripted by Liu Heng and heavy-handedly helmed by Zhang Yimou (“Raise the Red Lantern”), this is the first major Chinese film to cost $100 million and feature a Caucasian movie star; Yimou directed Bale through an interpreter and using body language. FYI: Bale’s international career began as a youngster trapped in Japan-occupied China in Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Flowers of War” blossoms into a visually stunning 7, an epic saga of survival and redemption.
