Zhang Yimou's Christian Bale starring Nanjing Massacre film The Flowers Of War is China's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Oscars but US distributors Wrekin Hill are clearly hoping for more as they currently gear up for an awards qualifying run. And to help boost up the name recognition a wee bit they've also just released the first US trailer for the picture.
Buzz on this is very strong and with a filmmaker of Zhang's stature a Foreign Language Oscar nom seems like a safe bet. Take a look at the trailer below.Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, Hero, House of the Flying Daggers) tells an epic story of love and sacrifice in THE FLOWERS OF WAR, starring Christian Bale and introducing Ni Ni.
The film, set during the Japanese invasion of China, is told from a young girl's point of view, not as a history lesson, but as an intimate, elemental and paradoxically universal celebration of the human spirit. Bale stars as a dissolute Westerner who seeks refuge in a Catholic Church. There he meets a beautiful Chinese courtesan who helps him rescue a group of schoolgirls from a terrible fate at the hands of the Japanese.
The film represents one of China's most ambitious productions, involving the recreation of 1937 Nanking built from scratch over a one-year period and the collaboration of one of Hollywood's most sought after leading men (Christian Bale).