Over-rated

Rating: 3/10 (14 August 2012)

I've seen nothing but positive reviews for this film, so I checked it out. Well, you may have noticed my opinion is not so supportive.
The brutality of the Nanking Massacre has been considerably saturated in recent years, particularly by Chinese cinema. Frankly, this massively fails in contrast to 'The City of Life and Death', which presented a much fairer perspective and made a whole-hearted effort to be comprehensive in its representation of all sides. 'Flowers' is not so objective, nor does it attempt to be. Its purpose is to pull your heart- strings, and seems to have succeeded with the majority of the audiences that watched it; albeit, it achieves this through a relatively skewed and subjective presentation.
The combat, for instance, is arguably a case in point. Historically, the battle for Nanking was marked by an overwhelming failure of leadership on the part of the Chinese command; and indiscipline and understandable cowardice on the part of the Chinese soldiery. Thousands of Chinese soldiers deserted their posts and donned civilian attire, helping to create the conditions that partially sparked the massacre in the first place. Chinese soldiery was largely composed of poorly-trained, illiterate peasants who had little or no stomach for the kind of warfare they were thrown into, and understandably ran. The aforementioned 'City of Life and Death' went to considerable lengths to demonstrate the plight of the Chinese soldier. 'Flowers' represents the entirety of the battle (yes, it was a massive battle!) with what appears to be an overly-equipped platoon of the German-trained 88th division,which certainly does not represent the majority of combatants in Nanking. Even notwithstanding, The heroism portrayed is flawed because the film almost reduces it to almost cartoon, comical proportions.
Of course, 'Flowers' does not profess to be an objective portrayal of the events of the massacre, but a human story set against the backdrop of these historical events. But the need to incorporate (admittedly well-executed) action elements into an already charged human drama detracts from the emotion of the film. Frankly, the battle scenes, while juvenile and reminiscent of 'Commando' comic books, were some of the best parts of the film, and felt like they belonged in another movie.
The cartoon-like parameters of the films character portrayals do not end with its portrayal of violence. Overall, the acting is taut and crisp, but the decision to portray the atrocity almost entirely through the eyes of a group of school-girls arguably leaves a lot to be desired. The image of almost saintly feminine faces against a backdrop of evil only serves to present a glossy fantasy and in my opinion does nothing to fairly represent the true humanity of the event. Furthermore, while Christian Bale is on traditional form, the need to tell the story through the eyes of a westerner is arguably a marketing ploy ( I appreciate that the film is a literary adaptation). The overall need to categorically contrast innocence versus evil detracts from the true horror of the event.
Perhaps I should not have seen any other movies depicting the tragedy of Nanking before seeing 'Flowers'; and if this is your first cinematic experience of the subject matter, you may well find it deeply provocative. My advice is to do yourself a favour, and watch 'City of Life and Death' first, and then see this if you still care to. frankly, and unlike most other reviewers, I was simply left mildly entertained. I shed no tears, because the characters never became more than caricatures.