posted by trevelyan on December 18, 2011 | 6 comments
If so... should we watch it? I'm a fan of Christian Bale's work (he seems to have good taste in scripts), but Zhang Yimou hasn't made a good film in around ten years and having watched Curse of the Golden Flower in theaters don't plan to sit through another one of his films without decent advance buzz. Also somewhat turned off by the prospect of yet another Chinese film about the Nanjing massacre.
If anyone has seen it and can share a review it would be appreciated.
I haven't seen it, but would also be interested to hear others' reactions. Reading an article yesterday about how Christian Bale wasn't aware of the history of the massacre before filming doesn't portend well for breaking that ten year streak.
I find it amusing to think that everyone is waiting for someone else to take the plunge. :)Real top-down push promoting the film though. When we went to the cinema to see what was playing, everything else had been cleared off the schedule. There did not seem to be a corresponding excitement among theatergoers: we headed to the video store.
Even though Zhang Yi Mou hasn't made a great film in around ten years...no wait...hold on let me start again. Even though Zhang Yi Mou hasn't made a good film in around ten years...OK...my bad...let me start over again. Even though Zhang Yi Mou hasn't made anything but the most boring and pretentious or hollow and meaningless films in around ten years, I am still completely amped to see The Flowers of War. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but I'm going to take the plunge and see it on discount day.I'll submit my comprehensive review thereafter.(上帝保佑我):(
I haven't seen it, but after having read "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang, I'm both interested in seeing it, and yet hesitant to do so. I don't see how they could portray the true extent of the horror of what happened. It's just too much for cinema. And yet if they don't, they would be "sugar coating" the truth, and not doing it justice. Also, I'm not sure my Chinese friends would want to go and see it. The subject still stings too much.By the way, to anyone who hasn't read Iris Chang's account of the event, I wholeheartedly recommend it to you.
JimmyTheSaint on January 5, 2012 | reply
just saw it. thumbs up--worth seeing even if you find any of the production or business elements distasteful. read Justin Chang's review in Variety, which does an excellent job of estimating the movie on its own terms; read Village Voice for the point of view that needs to be better than the movie.