Christian Bale takes on the Flowers of War

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2012)

Asian film market is known for their epic films, but not with A-list American stars attached. In The Flowers of War, Christian Bale jumps into the starring role of a film that is anything but American. Filled with various languages including English, Chinese, and Japanese this film attempts to do something very rare and bring these two cultures of filmmaking together in hopes to create something truly special, through a painful time in history.
The Flowers of War follows a mortician who arrives at a Catholic church to prepare the priest for burial, but is thrust into the middle of the Sino-Japanese war, among the convent girl students and prostitutes of a nearby brothel. Now as the unplanned protector of them all, must find a way to help them survive the horrors of the Japanese army. This seemed like it was going to be one of those movies that were more interesting in idea instead of actual execution, but it ended up delivering so much more than you would think. This film takes on some sensitive subject matter and doesn't hold too many punches delivering. Bale gives a great performance, once again thrusting him into something you wouldn't expect. You would never think that an actor with the wide variety of parts he has played with such dedication is the same guy who just finished playing Batman. Here he is forced to carry most of the film as the virtually the only American here in a sea of Asian performers. The rest of the cast delivers some great and powerful performances that are both touching at times and painful. This is one of those stories that doesn't sugar coat the horror of war and delivers some sequences that are a bit hard to take in. While most of the film is more of a drama, there are plenty of action war sequences that are not only important to the story, but also help to break up the slow pace of this heavy story.
This is a film that is not only a success in a unique culture mash-up in film, but also one that will pull out an emotional response of some kind. This emotionally charged dark film is way heavier than you may think going in, but is one that deserves to be seen. If you're not a big fan of the foreign film world, this is a perfect film to give a try and discover not only a great film, but the greatness of Asian cinema.
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