Monday, January 9, 2012

The Flowers of War (2011)

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)
The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai • 金陵十三钗 (2011)

Genre: War Drama
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Christian Bale, Xinyi Zhang, Ni Ni, Atsurô Watabe, Tianyuan Huang
Language: Mandarin, English, Japanese, Shanghainese
Duration:  145 min.
Rating: 6.8  

Summary:
In 1937, Nanking stands at the forefront of a war between China and Japan. As the invading Japanese Army overruns the city, desperate civilians seek refuge behind the nominally protective walls of a western cathedral. Here, John Miller, an American trapped amidst the chaos of battle and the ensuing occupation takes shelter, joined by a group of innocent schoolgirls and thirteen courtesans, equally determined to escape the horrors taking place outside the church walls.



The Flowers of War is a film directed by Zhang Yimou, written by Heng Liu, and based on the novel The 13 Women of Nanjing by Geling Yan.  It is China's official submission to the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, and has been nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 69th Golden Globes.

Hailed as the most expensive Chinese blockbuster of all time, directed by one of it's most highly successful and respected filmmakers, and starring one of Hollywood's biggest A-listers, The Flowers of War sure has some lofty expectations to live up to.  Especially having to follow up Lu Chuan's phenomenal telling of the Nanjing Massacre, City of Life and Death.

Unsurprisingly, it is a grand spectacle, featuring glorious cinematography from Zhao Xiaoding, who has worked with Zhang since 2002's Hero, capturing some of the most intense battle sequences of the year, which of course consist mainly of legendary deeds of selfless heroism on the part of the Chinese soldiers, seen through the clouds of smoke, dust, and fog.  Not that there is anything inherently wrong with this type of embellishment, it's just a very typical thing to see from a Chinese film.

The set design and locations here surpass anything Zhang's done before, the bombed out city is amazingly reconstructed, and the massive stone cathedral where the bulk of the movie takes place is impressive in its size and detail.  Even the overall acting is pretty good, or as good as you would expect from a film of this magnitude.  Christian Bale handles the large than life character he's given with a strong performance displaying ample charisma; and newcomers Ni Ni, who plays the lead courtesan Yu Mo, and Tianyuan Huang, who plays the orphan church boy George, are both delightful to watch.

It's the story and script that holds this film back for me.  There are far too many convenient 'only in the movies' moments, and too often the characters make random inconsistent decisions just to manipulate the plot, not to mention the sudden and unexplained about-face that Bale's character undergoes.  It's all very unconvincing and some of it just feels shoehorned in, included in order to tick off check marks in the blockbuster rulebook.

This certainly isn't as bad as most of the critics seem to think, but it's also far from the masterpiece that the names and dollars involved should be capable of delivering.  Despite its flaws, I do think it is pleasing enough make the shortlist, and would not be surprised if it receives an official nomination from the Academy. 

Bonjour Tristesse

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)

The Flowers of War • Jin líng shí san chai (2011)

18 comments:

Bonjour Tristesse said...

 Happy new year, and welcome back Christine!

The Angry Lurker said...

I had heard about this a while ago and was looking forward to it but maybe not as much now, what are the battle scenes like and are their many?

Christine said...

You reminded me that I saw the trailer for this a while back and meant to see it .  Now I'll remember.  Happy new year!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

It still is a bit of a disappointment, just not as much as the 33% rating on RT would make you think.

CastorTroy said...

Good to hear this isn't as bad as some folks made it out to be. I'll probably give it a look when it hits DVD.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah that's one of the problems, although the events of the Sino-Japanese war  and particularly Nanjing are tragic, the real scope of it isn't felt because the particular story of this film really isn't all that 'epic'.  It's a rather weakly written small personal tale. 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah it's no surprise that the visuals are exquisite.  I think my impression of this was affected by the very excellent City of Life and Death which was so much more emotionally powerful without feeling contrived.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I usually love internationally flavored films, but one of my quibbles with this is it just so happens that every major character in the film speaks perfect English. The prostitute, the orphan boy, and even the Japanese commander.  They do explain why in the script, but it still seems too convenient for me.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Unfortunately that's one game I never really got into.  

ruth said...

Woops I meant to say more than that... this is the first review of this film I read, too bad it's not as good as I thought it would be. I'm not surprised that it looked beautiful given Zhang Yimou's penchant for gorgeous cinematography, but sounds like the story is not as strong as the visuals. I don't know when this will arrive in my city, but I probably end up just renting this.

ruth said...

VERY nice review!

d_4 said...

It's China's submission and it features Christian Bale. I can't even.. but okay. Alright. I'm not terribly drawn to it I think. I dunno, I'll probably watch it eventually, but I'm not expecting much. It just seems like a foreign film made Hollywood... Takes all the magic from the foreign part.

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

"very typical thing to see from a Chinese film." So true. I don't know if you're a 40K fan but the Chinese have always reminded me of the Imperial Guardsmen. Or was it the other way around.

Jcohen7523 said...

Looks like a powerful movie. 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

There are two, and they are both pretty gruesome and violent.  The first and longer sequence shows a ragtag group of poorly armed Chinese against an armored Japanese unit.  The second, follows one of the surviving officers as he takes on an infantry platoon, one man army style.  Neither are very realistic but they are impressive and in my opinion the best parts of the movie.

Max Covill said...

It seems I got swept away in the hype for this one. A big name actor and sprawling epic, I was in. Seems it plays a lot more like other disappointing epics. Thanks for the review! 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

 I read about that story too, he should have showed up in his Batman costume.

The Angry Vegetarian said...

I was just reading about this the other day as a result of watching Christian Bale getting stopped/harassed/whatever by security in China when he was trying to meet with Chen Guiangcheng. I enjoy watching Christian Bale, so I'll be watching this one. 

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