The Flowers of War

Yimou's immediate imagery, with slow motion fragments, handheld action and a blunted colorful set design, provides a phony sense of grandeur, that is merely crowd-pleasing and hardly enlightening. This is when Yimou looks just like Rob Marshall -- I mean it.

Soul-crushingly horrid, cloying, sentimental drivel. Also starring Paul Schneider who appears for a couple of minutes to look confused and laugh at Christian Bale and everyone involved.

Yimou Zhang had lost his talent. Good picturing as usual, but not new at all. Narrow-minded, nationalist, male-chauvinistic.

It's got action, romance, fantastic sets, and tear jerking drama. So what went wrong? Zhang's problem is that he's emphasized style over substance in his last few films. As usual he's unable to overcome a straight forward film script to delve into the pathology of the Nanking massacre or any other significant human sentiment. The eye rolling hookers with a heart of gold, cheap romance, and heroic platitudes are tiresome. The young girls do a great job acting which seems entirely wasted.

2

The cast is good, although the story is a little bit hamfisted and while it doesn't necessarily shy away from the horrors of the Rape of Nanking - one of the most terrible tragedies of modern history, Hollywoodising it isn't necessarily the way to go. Not one of Zhang Yimou's better films either. It's watchable, though, and the cinematography is good as you expect from this director.

Powerful display of war at its absolute worst.

This is a great movie. Christian Bale goes from being a goofy good-for-nothing Mortician to the protector of a group of young Chinese Catholic school children during the invasion of Nanking in 1937. Flowers of War contains some of the most brutal war violence that I have seen since Saving Private Ryan and has other really mortifying scenes. The Japanese are brutal to the Chinese people and you can't help but feel terrible about the women and children who are affected. A sad but wonderful film.

If this didn't have Christian Bale, I would have passed this movie by. Thankfully I saw this. Amazing Story.

One of Zhang's more commercial films, but not entirely without merit. While Zhang is still a master at manipulating his audiences, this effort feels a tad half-hearted, while the very spectacular bigness of it all deprives it of the wonderful intimacy his smaller films have. Will be hard going for Westerners not used to the wide tonal shifts common in Chinese cinema.

The sets and gimmicky visuals set stage for a fable of the rape of nanking then it goes for epic in a way that even speilberg would have found too sentimental.

An interesting story, but it seemed a little one-sided to me and I could never really associate with the characters too well, especially Bale's main character.

Takes half an hour before it becomes even remotely interesting. Wonder why Bale chose this movie, did he it all read the script before he went into this or did he just see Zhang Yimou at the top. The dialogue is really poor and the characters are really flat. But it does have some emotional appeal.

74.500

???Hasegawa??????????????????????????

A beautiful film. The portrayal of Nanking during 1937 is magnificent, and I especially love the gory detail in the violence.

Impressive plot development. Zhang Yimou makes a daring approach by creating several disbelief to the audience first before suspending them soon after. Very refreshing theme as well, which revolves around the self-sacrificing spirit of low hierarchy Chinese class to create a brighter future for their next generation. However, the pacing can be slow at times. Certain parts should have been cut away to even out the pacing.

"Zhang Yimou's film is a bit of a hodgepodge, a work that sets up as epic in scale, but then pitches its tale on a far smaller level." - Andrew Schenker

Yo this sucked

The first Chinese film to star a Western actor, and an expensive one at that. Bale may just be there for the box-office draw, but delivers with an offbeat, heartfelt performance.Veteran director Zhang Yimou largely succeeds in adapting the extremely heavy source materials, despite an occasional excess of melodrama. The film's a bit of a rollercoaster ride in terms of tone, but I suspect real-life war is often that way. A hard-to-watch film that spotlights an under-recognized tragedy.

Grandious start, but it fizzles out half way.

what a nice drama!