The Flowers of War

15 yrs 146 minutes • 2011 • 7.5

In this moving war drama, the Chinese director Yimou Zhang portrays the Japanese invasion of the city of Nanjing in 1937 and the massacre that followed the city's capitulation in which at least 200,000 people died. Christian Bale plays the selfish and drunken funeral undertaker John Miller. When the Japanese forces attack, Miller is inside the Catholic Church to take care of the burial of the priest who just died. Miller and the girls in the convent school barricades themselves in the church. After a while a group of prostitutes from a nearby brothel wants to come in. Both Miller and the women know what will happen to the young girls if the soldiers get hold of them, so in order to save them, John dress up as a priest while the prostitutes take the girls' place. "The Nanjing massacre is still an open wound in China and Zhang is a brave director who dares to approach it," writes The Guardian. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film 2012.