The Flowers of War

[THE FLOWERS OF WAR screens Saturday April 14th at 7:15 pm and Sunday April 15th at 3:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Pete Roche

It’s 1937 and the marauding Japanese army is running roughshod over China’s former capitol.  Shanghai has already fallen.  Nanjing is next.  Corpses litter the streets and buildings are reduced to rubble.  Two dozen schoolgirls are left to fend for themselves inside the gated Westchester Cathedral after their priestly caretaker dies.

Who better to protect them than Batman?

Academy Award winner star Christian Bale (THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) plays John Miller in Zhang Yimou’s new historical drama THE FLOWERS OF WAR, a compelling examination of lost innocence and redemption found set against the backdrop of the “Rape of Nanjing” three years before the United States entered the global fray that would be known as World War II.