General analysis of Zhang's Flowers of War **Spoiler alert**

Rating: 7/10 (17 May 2014)

The movie 'Flowers of War' tells a story of heroism in the face of adversity. It also reinforces the widespread Chinese sense of pain arising from the Japanese occupation. The director Zhang Yimou uses graphic violence together with instances of depraved behaviour and values to portray the invading Japanese force as lacking in any human qualities. This may explain the reason for using a high profile western actor with Hollywood fame in one of the principal roles. The movie is set in the city of Nanking in 1937 as the last remaining Chinese troops fall and the Japanese took complete control. The story is predominantly told from the perspective of one of the survivors, a convent girl. John Miller (the actor Christian Bale) is a mortician and he was in Nanking to assist with the burial of a priest of the Catholic Church. Finding that his services are no longer needed, he looks around the church to salvage anything of value as payment for his troubles. Shortly after his arrival a group of Qing Huai River prostitutes arrive looking for Gu the cook. Despite attempts to exclude them, they scale the wall and make themselves at home in the cellar. Seeing a white person in the convent, they attempt to seduce him in the hope that he can assist them in escaping Nanking. The film opens with a scene of deep fog, in the midst of which three convent girls scramble to find a hiding place from the Japanese troops trying to capture or kill them. This scene immediately introduces the audience to the cruelty, senselessness and waste of war which is reinforced by graphic violence and depraved behaviour. The Japanese are portrayed as men who have lost their humanity. They are undeterred from their quest to rape the convent girls. At one point, Miller flys a flag of truce and appeals to their humanity, however they are undeterred. In contrast the Chinese soldiers, in the face of certain death, tried to protect the girls even going so far as to return one of the girl's shoes that had been lost on the battlefield. Miller transforms from a selfish drunkard, dressing up in priest's robes to impress Yu Mo, the head prostitute. In the end, Miller took on the mantle of the priest and became a selfless hero. The storyline focuses attention on the saving of a small group of convent girls from the evil intent of the Japanese soldiers, which seems to be the central theme of the movie. The girls are initially saved by Miller, then by a group of Chinese soldiers, by a lone Chinese soldier later on, by Miller again, by the prostitutes and by George Chen a 12 year old boy placed in charge after the death of the old priest. They are finally saved by the 'traitorous' father of one of the girl's. Each of these saviours effectively redeem themselves through their devotion and selflessness. Thus the movie is a device to portray salvation, selflessness and loyalty of the Chinese and Western characters within the mire of depravity, perpetrated by the invading Japanese. The Chinese soldier's struggle against huge odds, is well illustrated. They face a Japanese invading army which is well equipped with tanks and machine guns. The Chinese soldiers use desperate tactics to gain advantage, mounting suicide missions as human shields to allow one of their fellow soldiers at the rear of the formation to get close enough to the tanks to blow them up. Though they realise that the Japanese will win the battle, they stay and fight. Even the last Chinese soldier is portrayed as superior to the Japanese, wiping out a Japanese platoon in his last act of defiance. Many scenes went on for longer periods than they needed to, to underline certain situations. For example, the Japanese commander defended the behaviours of his troops, despite the callousness shown towards innocent civilians. Bodies litter the streets highlighting the massacre of innocent citizens and the lack of respect for human dignity displayed by the Japanese. During the film, there is a constant background sound of gunfire and mortar shells occurring to highlight that the environment is highly dangerous. The film uses many devices to encourage the audience to emotionally buy into the story and its underlying themes. For example, violin music was used effectively during emotional scenes to touch the audiences' sense of compassion and concern. A convent girl falls from the second floor landing on her head after being abused by Japanese soldiers. One of the prostitutes sneaks out of the church to return to the brothel to retrieve some strings for her instrument to play for a dying boy. There is a beautiful sense of poignancy and uselessness of this mission as the girl dies on the excursion while the boy has already died. The Japanese officer plays his melody of home reminiscences and reveals one of the few humane snapshots of the Japanese occupying force. This abruptly ended when he slavishly followed his orders from his commanders, knowing that they would result in harm to innocent young girls. The movie ends with a clichéd scene of the hero driving off into the sunset with the girls that he saved. The use of graphic violence with many gruesome depictions of killings, particularly by gunshot, is contrasted with scenes containing humanity, humour and romance. Zhang is using the eternal theme of good triumphing over evil as well as over emphasising the callousness of a despised invader.