Review of The Flowers of War (2011) by Walter M — 05 Jul 2013

In "The Flowers of War," John Miller(Christian Bale), a mortician, makes his way through the ruins of Nanking while dodging bullets all the way but never forgetting to bring flour to Winchester Cathedral. Instead of saving themselves, a Chinese platoon sacrifice themselves to save a group of girls, leaving Major Li(Dawei Tong) as the only unwounded survivor to take critically injured Pu Sheng(Zhu Liangqi) to the cathedral for care. After which Li takes up a sniper's perch to protect the cathedral which now has a group of prostitutes seeking sanctuary. At first, they are turned away but jump the fence, anyway. Miller sees his chance by trying to buy the services of Yu Mo(Ni Ni), their translator and ersatz leader. She declines but says if he can get them all out of the city, they will make his wildest dreams come true...

It is only human nature to believe that all human beings will rise to the occasion under the worst possible circumstances which is the appeal of a movie like "The Flowers of War," set during the Rape of Nanking. And despite a couple of acts of wanton stupidity, that's pretty much true for those here under siege, with it even being implied that Miller might be answering a slightly divine calling(well, somebody sure loves their stained glass). So, while I buy the final results, as this is based on an actual story, I'm not quite sure about the rest, as there are not only contrivances but the second oldest cliche, as the movie drags on to its eventual finale.