The Flowers of War Movie Review

The Flowers of War

                                                                  

The Flowers of War is a historical drama war film released in 2011. This movie is directed by Zhang Yimou and its plot is based on the novel “13 Flowers of Nanjing” by Chinese-American author Geling Yan. The major roles of The Flowers of War are played by Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Zhang Xinyi, Tong Dawei, Atsuro Watabe, Shigeo Kobayashi and Cao Kefan. The plot of this movie is set on Nanking, China during the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937.

The Flowers of War tells the story of survival of an American man, a group of schoolgirls and a group of prostitutes who are living together in a church. This is a beautiful story of how crisis brings people together and how humanity comes out of people when they are surrounded by brutality.  

Christian Bale and Ni Ni in a scene of The Flowers of War

Plot:

The Flowers of War starts with a war scene where a group of Chinese soldiers ambush a group of invading Japanese army who were chasing a group of schoolgirls. Although the Japanese army faces large damage at the beginning, but soon they bring strong reinforcements and crash the Chinese resistance, leaving only two survivors of the Chinese army. But in the meantime, the group of schoolgirls manage to reach a church where they were supposed to come for shelter. While going there, they meet an American mortician named John Miller who is also heading for the same church to bury the priest.  

After reaching there, John meets the caretaker of that church (a small boy) but can’t find the body of the priest. He still demands money as he has come all the way for his job. He doesn’t care much about helping others in a situation like this, instead he tries to get comfortable in living in that church as the priest. Soon a group of prostitutes come to that church seeking for shelter, claiming that the church’s another caretaker has taken bribe from them to give them shelter here. As soon as they arrive, they start to flirt with John. Later, they hide in the cellar of the church.

Now, the two survivors of the Chinese army from the previous fight come to that church. One of them is severely wounded. The other one carries him and leaves him at the prostitutes’ care. He then leaves the church and takes position in a nearby collapsed building. Inside the church, the schoolgirls and the prostitutes don’t get along much, but somehow manages to live. John is attracted to the leader of the prostitutes and tries to interest her in him. She offers John that she, with her team, will satisfy John if he can take them to the nearby safe camp.

But time doesn’t pass peacefully, a group of Japanese army attacks the church and after searching, finds the group of hiding schoolgirls. But a girl shows a noble gesture by not getting into the cellar when she was being chased, thus helping the prostitutes stay hidden in the cellar.  Some members of the army get brutal and try to rape the girls. John tries to stop them and fails. Then the lone survivor of that Chinese army shoots some of the Japanese army which gives away his hiding position. The Japanese soldiers leave the girls and go looking for him. He alone kills a good number of Japanese soldiers and finally gets killed.

Then a Japanese high ranked officer comes to the church with his team. The schoolgirls sing for him. Seeing everything, the officer gives them his words for their safety and also appoints some soldiers around the church for the safety of everyone living there. With the officer, there is a Chinese man who’s daughter is there among the schoolgirls. He is helping the Japanese only to find safety for his family. At a chance which came later on, John asks him for some parts for the damaged truck of the church, so that he could take everyone to safe camp. He says he’ll try his best to help.

One day, John finds two of the prostitutes missing. They went to their previous home, one to bring her earrings and another to bring strings for her musical instruments with which, she wants to play to the wounded soldier.  John rushes to search for them with the caretaker of the church knowing they will not survive for long in this warzone. He finally finds them, one killed and another brutally raped before being killed. John then comes back to the church.

Few days later, the Japanese officer visits the church again and gives John a written order that the schoolgirls and a prostitute (who has accidentally got in the schoolgirls’ team) will have to sing at a victory celebration of the Japanese army. Fearing the worst, John doesn’t agree to send the girls. But the officer warns him that it is an order from higher officers and they may use force to carry on this order.

Everybody at the church can guess what is there in the girls’ fate. At the party, they will be brutally raped and even may get killed. Nobody wants the girls to go to that party. But John has no ways to say no. So, to avoid this horrific fate, later on that night, all the schoolgirls together try to commit suicide by jumping off the bell tower of the church. John and the prostitutes try to stop them and then the leader of the prostitutes says that they will go to that party instead of the girls.

The last part of this movie is about their attempt to save the schoolgirls and the fate of John, the caretaker, the schoolgirls and the prostitutes. Can they deceive the eyes of the Japanese army? Can they be saved? You have to watch the movie to know the answers.

My review about The Flowers of War:

First of all, I felt that The Flowers of War is a beautiful piece of work.

The plot was beautiful and touchy. Like other great war movies, The Flowers of War will make you hate a war and will make you worried about the innocent lives of a warzone. This movie has showed what a dreadful fate waits for some people who are not involved with the war in any way. The Flowers of War also shows some extraordinary examples of some good people in wartime. The direction and screenplay of this movie seemed excellent. 

The acting and dialogues are good in The Flowers of War. There is no question about the acting of Christian Bale and he has done a perfect job. The acting of all other characters, specially the schoolgirls’ and the prostitutes’ seemed fluent and natural. The dialogs were also good according to the movie’s plot. Same goes for makeup. The plot of The Flowers of War needed some glamour for the prostitutes (specially their leader) even in these situations and the director has matched them pretty well.

There are some war scenes in The Flowers of War which fitted with the movie’s subject nicely and seemed realistic. These scenes includes some killings, dead bodies and some rape scenes which were needed to express the shocking violence of a war and the director has shown them nicely without going too extreme. There is no direct nudity in The Flowers of War.

The special effects and music of The Flowers of War are also goods. I couldn’t catch any flaws in any scene or in the plot.

So, finally, I really liked The Flowers of War. To the fans of war movies, I’ll recommend this movie as a must see. If you are a fan of all other kinds of movies, for you also, The Flowers of War is a must see. 

For those who are interested: 

IMDB Link : The Flowers of War IMDB

Wikipedia link : The Flowers of War Wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, get the best deal here:  The Flowers of War Movie