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Review: Overwrought & Superficial ‘Flowers Of War’ Never Even Blooms

  • By The Playlist
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  • January 20, 2012 4:33 PM
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  • 3 Comments
Reviews
While the historically overlooked massacre and genocide of China's city of Nanking is experiencing a resurgence in cultural awareness (and therefore cinema) as an under-remembered tragedy worth memorializing (see the 2007 documentary "Nanking"), the brutal events – Japan killing 200,000 people in their 1937 overthrowing of the region – is still mostly unknown outside of the East.
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More: Christian Bale, Zhang Yimou, The Flowers Of War, Review

Wrekin Hill To Take U.S. Rights To Zhang Yimou’s ‘The Flowers Of War’ Starring Christian Bale

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • November 8, 2011 6:32 PM
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  • 0 Comments
News
There is still a lot of time for things to play out in the awards season race, but often there are indicators as to how far (or not) a film will go. While on paper, two-time Best Foreign Film nominee Zhang Yimou directing Christian Bale in a period piece war movie seems like a no-brainer, "The Flowers Of War" has taken quite a long time to secure distribution. Perhaps that melodramatic trailer should have been a warning sign? And no knock to upstarts Wrekin Hill, who are new players in the game, but word of their taking on the film doesn't exactly bode well for 'War' to be a major force in the next few months.
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More: The Flowers Of War, Wrekin Hill, Christian Bale, Zhang Yimou

'Heroes Of Nanking' With Christian Bale Now Titled 'The Flowers Of War'

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • September 9, 2011 7:20 AM
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  • 2 Comments
Today, the Toronto International Film Festival was host to twenty minutes of "The Flowers Of War," the new film from Zhang Yimou seeking a distributor. If you're confused, thinking that the world was finally going to get a look at "Heroes Of Nanking," don't worry, it's the same movie, with Christian Bale as an American priest who helps a number of local women take shelter during the Nanking Massacre of 1937. The synopsis also suggests they "fight back," though the original title is much more aggressive than the new, more graceful one. Both are a bit too melodramatic for our taste, and we suspect to most this will be "that Chinese movie with Batman."
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More: Actors, Foreign Films, Foreign Directors, Nanjing Heroes, Zhang Yimou

Christian Bale To Star In Zhang Yimou's Epic 'Nanjing Heroes'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • December 22, 2010 1:55 AM
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  • 2 Comments
F. Scott Fitzgerald may have said that there were no second acts in American lives, but that presumably didn't include the Welsh-born Christian Bale, whose career to date seems to have been structured by Robert McKee. Beginning as a child star in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun," and working consistently into his teens in such films as "Newsies" and "Swing Kids," the actor firmly moved into the adult phase of his career with his iconic performance in "American Psycho." That, in turn, saw him win the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan's revival "Batman Begins," which has firmly landed the actor on the A-list.
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More: Actors, Foreign Films, Foreign Directors, Nanjing Heroes, Zhang Yimou

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