The Flowers of War

stunning film overall. a very worthy performance by bale and the other stars int his film.
Yimou is definitely a master of his craft and this film in my opinion is one of his best.

also this is currently china's biggest budget film to date.

one interesting note is that Yimou said that a big part of the film was in english which he doesn't understand the other part was a dialect in chinese which he doesn't understand and the last major language was japanese which he also doesn't understand but managed (to put together an involving experience) in spite of this shortcoming. hope i got that right, he was being interpreted.

i was lucky enough to screen this film last week and can say it should not be missed. i believe it will be at select engagements to qualify for the oscars in december but will open in wide release later on.

without giving anything away, there were several moments that i can recall of feeling joy of getting to know these characters, then moments of utter shock and several moments of audible weeping across the audience.

not to mention some very gritty and well produce action sequences of combat.

do yourself a favor. watch this film

Great trailer....a visual feast, as always with Yimou.

IMO, he is one of the world's best filmmakers.

This will be a no-brainer buy on BD for me.

+ 100...perhaps the best ever in cinematography and vivid color landscapes. A true genius.

Wow, what an incredible movie! And what an incredible story! This movie gets you on so many levels. I don't know if you can make a movie any better than this. This is a rare 10 out of 10.

Once again Bale shows why he is one of the best.

The SQ on this BD is one of the best you will ever hear.
Edited by Aliens - 12/30/12 at 5:18am

Well, after all the comments here, I finally have the courage to watch one of history's darkest hours (too chicken to watch the Rape of Nanking but not horror flicks).

This is a great story and cinematography after some of Zhang's recent flops (Curse of Golden Flowers and A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop).

Love the song too, the gorgeous stained glass, the ending and some of the characters in this one, especially Yu Mo and Shu. Christian Bale also surprises me with his depth ever since American Psycho.

Watch it if you're not squeamish like me. Won't regret it.

Agree with everyone here, I wasn't expecting to like this at all but the guy is a genius with the camara and use of colors to express his vision. I would be very shocked if anyone did not enjoy this in some fashion. I would even say Yimou is at the very best with the best in a rarefy small group... Paul Thomas Anderson, Ridley Scott, Spielberg, Mel Gibson and Tarantino all have my anticipation most for their next film.

I'm hoping with all the sequels and prequels out there that will be one for Hero and HOFD in the works.

Yeah Curse of the golden flower was def the worst I've seen from him. OTOH however, I thought A Woman, a Gun, Noodle shop was hilarious had me LOL esp in the opening scene and this one the colors was just off the charts gorgeous.

I did enjoy this film but for an even better ( and certainly more harrowing) film on this subject check out City of Life and Death: "
Director Chuan Lu pulls off a rare feat by providing a clear-eyed drama about an event in Chinese-Japanese history -- the 1937 Rape of Nanking following that city's capture by Japan -- that still casts a shadow over relations between the countries. Shot in black and white, the film chronicles the six-week period through the eyes of multiple characters -- including a Japanese soldier, a refugee camp supervisor, a resistance fighter and others."
It's a pretty amazing film. Trie buying it after watching but it was out of stock on Amazon. The film is available on Netflix streaming.