The Flowers of War Review

The world has so much history to offer that seeing a movie tell a story about a horrible event in history can leave you speechless and pondering over why things like that could happen. The movie ‘The Flowers of War’  did just that, it made me feel speecheless. Telling an emotional story about the rape of Nanking in 1937 and the brutal nature of an invading army and the inhumane behavior the army conducted towards civilians.

John Miller played by Christian Bale

The story starts with an American mortician named John Miller played by Academy Award winner Christian Bale. Who is sent to Nanking to prepare the body of a father of a church, but arrives during the time when the Japanese army invades the capital of China, Nanking. John barely survives and finds himself stranded in a church full of school girls and a bunch of prostitutes who took refuge in the church. Eventually, the Japanese army enters the church and begins hunting down the school girls to conduct sexual pleasures. John struggles with this and tries to put a stop to it by pretending to be the father of the church to stop the Japanese soliders, but is ignored.

Yu Mo played by Ni Ni

After further events the Japanese army leaves them in peace until the Japanese Chief Commander requests the presence of the school girls to attend a celebration. John refuses but is given no choice in the matter. John knows full well what will happen to the school girls, so he moves ahead with his escape plans, which leads to the sacrifice of the women he falls in love with named Yu Mo played by Ni Ni.  

This is an emotional story about the struggles of a bunch of church school girls and prostitutes and the sacrifices they made to keep each other safe. There are moments in this movie you are left with watery eyes and full of anger. In some parts of the movie I was left speechless. I could not believe this was allowed to happen back then, but then again, inhumane actions towards civilians still happens today.

Overall, the cast presented a captivating, heartwarming performance that left you feeling remorse, anger and sadness throughout the movie. ‘The Flowers of War’ is a must watch for it is a dramatic portrayal of a horrific time we should never forget.

I give ‘The Flowers of War’ an imp score of 4 out 4 smiles.  Excellent entertainment. A must watch!