There will be a political firestorm in Asia over the about to be released film “Flowers of War,” which is based on the 1937 Nanjing Massacre and the novel "13 women of Nanjing" from Yan Geling. From the Wall Street Journal article “Zhang Yimou’s ‘Flowers of War’ Sumptuous But Lacks Subtlety” (here):
Leading Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou is hoping to hit it big in China and globally with his new film, “The Flowers of the War." The question is, can he do it?
Featuring Hollywood star Christian Bale, “The Flowers of the War” is China’s Academy Award entry for best foreign language film and tackles subject matter familiar within China: Japan’s brutal occupation of China’s southern city of Nanjing in 1937.
Chinese audiences may be drawn to the film for that reason, but it’s also sumptuously shot, rolling out Hollywood-like special effects with a plot that pulls no emotional punches.
The movie, which opens on Friday in China and a week later in the U.S., centers on a character named John Miller, played by Mr. Bale, who is a dissolute American mortician arrived in Nanjing to bury the town’s catholic priest. He finds salvation attempting to rescue an unlikely assortment of Chinese schoolgirls and local prostitutes sheltering in the cathedral from the horror of the Japanese occupation.
Mr. Zhang’s portrayal of the Japanese brutality leaves little to the imagination. Nuanced treatment of the Chinese characters is in stark contrast with portrayal of the Japanese as monochrome monsters.
And:
Mr. Zhang’s film, which jumps nimbly between English, the Nanjing dialect of Chinese, and occasional barks of Japanese, clearly attempts to appeal to global audiences and is part of a global push from China to create a homegrown film industry that can rival Hollywood’s.
China’s film industry , ranking ninth in international box-office revenues, generated ticket sales totaling 10.17 billion yuan (roughly $1.5 billion) in 2010, up from 6.2 billion yuan in 2009. The U.S. topped the global market at $9.87 billion.
China wants to create production and distribution companies big enough to compete with U.S. film giants like Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures. The government believes that if China becomes a major player in the global film industry it will help to export the country’s culture and soften its image overseas.
With a budget nearing $100 million, “Flowers of War” is the most expensive Chinese movie ever made.
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