Flowers of War – Review

Finally, reviewing a newer film… I was extremely busy during the last few weeks and the only source of films for me was DVD’s or Blu-Rays that my parents bought. That’s why I haven’t been reviewing new films. But today, as it is Chinese New Year, I went to the movies with my parents and saw this film – Flowers of War. Directed by Zhang YiMou, and it stars Christian Bale as the male lead, and Chinese actress Ni Ni as the female lead. The film focuses on a story that happens in a Church during the Japanese invasion towards China, Bale, a mortician went to this church supposedly to help bury the priest who died from the war, but was required to play a larger role in the story of 13 students who were living in the church, and 12 prostitutes who forced their entry in the church in order to hide from the war. That’s as much as I can tell without spoiling the film.

Before the actual review, I have to say that movies like this, movies that are loosely based on true events, have to be seen as what they actually are – movies. I do believe that directors try to create thought-provoking films to generate polemic, but I do also believe that directors are not making movies to create war between two nations, and after reading some comments from YouTube, I would say that people are starting their own “verbal war” for this film, specially the veracity of the war and the current political position of China and Japan. Films are meant to be seen as a source of entertainment, and that being said, when a film starts a debate like this, it’s just quite disrespectful towards “movies” as a whole.

Now the actual review: As a Chinese, I have seen some of Zhang’s previous works, including Hero with Jet Li, and I would say that this is one of his better films in the recent years, and that’s because this film does not feel dull, and does not feel that the director is trying to put his style down your throat, it’s artsy without being too slow, there, I said it. The performances are phenomenal, considering that most of the performers are inexperienced children. Bale’s performance was OK for his standards, considering his records (come on, the guy was in American Psycho, was in Nolan’s Batman and convinced me that he was a cracked out asshole in The Fighter!), it’s not that it’s a boring performance, because it was not, you can actually feel the emotional arc of the character.

The female lead, Ni Ni, gave a brilliant performance as the leader of the group of prostitutes, she was charming without overacting, appealing without seeming slutty, and I give her props, because acting in a foreign language is extremely difficult, and she did it splendidly.

This was a great film, but not a flawless film. Although the director did a better job in this than most of his recent works, the film’s plot is still a bit forced, in the sense that Bale’s characters starts in being a drunk asshole and ends in being this heroic dude, but the only thing that made him that way is that he witnessed a scene in the invasion, but earlier in the film he says that he’s been in China for a while, we have to assume that he witnessed death during this war, and all of the sudden, he went from being a money-seeking drunk to this hero? It’s just a bit difficult for the audience to follow. Overall, the story is a bit forced, but the film flows really well, and the performances were amazing with what they were given, specially the kids and Ni Ni, I would, for the first time, rate a film, and my rating scale is between F and A+, and this film would be a B film.

I will try to write more reviews as I can see more films, please be tuned.