Zhang Yimou, one of China’s best-known filmmakers, deserves a great big lump of coal in his holiday stocking thanks to his ludicrous soap opera “The Flowers of War,” starring Christian Bale.
The story revolves around the infamous 1937 Rape of Nanking, during which invading Japanese troops killed and tortured some 100,000 Chinese. Most of the action takes place at a Catholic church occupied by John Miller (Bale), a dissolute American mortician passing himself off as a priest, plus a dozen schoolgirls and an equal number of female prostitutes.
The Japanese know the girls are taking refuge in the church, but they don’t know about the hookers, a situation that sets up the film’s climactic moral dilemma.
“The Flowers of War” had a budget of $100 million, making it the most expensive Chinese movie of all time. Battle scenes are spectacular — great explosions! — but most of the screen time is taken up by a contrived and schmaltzy script with little emotional punch.
Zhang made a name for himself with love stories — Oscar-nominated “Raise the Red Lantern” among them — starring his then-girlfriend, Gong Li. Their careers suffered when they separated on- and off-screen in 1995. But not even she would be able to save this murky exercise.