金陵十三钗 (The Flowers of War) is a 2011 historical film directed by Zhang Yimou, about the horrors of one of the most brutal events in the history of man, the Rape of Nanking. The movie shows the sufferings of the Chinese in the hands of Japanese soldiers who occupied Nanking in December 1937 and juxtaposed these with the valiant and heroic sacrifices people made.
The movie stars Christian Bale as an American mortician who pretended to be a priest in order to protect the teenage girls at a convent school since it is said that the Japanese wouldn't dare touch a Westerner. John Miller refuses at first, seeing he wouldn't benefit from such a role but seeing the danger the girls are in following an intrusion wherein the girls were almost raped by the Japanese soldiers, he stepped up to become their guardian and protector.
A group of prostitutes forced their way into the convent. At first, this group always bickered with the convent girls, but in the end, it is they who saved the girls. As the prostitutes' leader Yu Mo says, prostitutes have always been seen in a bad light and what better way than to redeem themselves and changing the way society perceives prostitutes by doing one final act of greatness in the form of sacrifice.
The scene where the prostitutes sang and danced against iridescent light is my favorite scene in the film. In it, the prostitutes, so small and materialistic in the eyes of the society, suddenly becomes great beings capable of love and sacrifice in eyes of the girls, especially of Shu, the seeming leader of the convent girls.
The movie may be violent in most parts and it does have disturbing scenes not for the fainthearted but it does effectively show great human attributes in times of war. Compassion, sacrifice, love, forgiveness, loyalty, and above all, the indomitable human spirit are all expressed in this movie.
The movie stars Christian Bale as an American mortician who pretended to be a priest in order to protect the teenage girls at a convent school since it is said that the Japanese wouldn't dare touch a Westerner. John Miller refuses at first, seeing he wouldn't benefit from such a role but seeing the danger the girls are in following an intrusion wherein the girls were almost raped by the Japanese soldiers, he stepped up to become their guardian and protector.
A group of prostitutes forced their way into the convent. At first, this group always bickered with the convent girls, but in the end, it is they who saved the girls. As the prostitutes' leader Yu Mo says, prostitutes have always been seen in a bad light and what better way than to redeem themselves and changing the way society perceives prostitutes by doing one final act of greatness in the form of sacrifice.
The scene where the prostitutes sang and danced against iridescent light is my favorite scene in the film. In it, the prostitutes, so small and materialistic in the eyes of the society, suddenly becomes great beings capable of love and sacrifice in eyes of the girls, especially of Shu, the seeming leader of the convent girls.
The movie may be violent in most parts and it does have disturbing scenes not for the fainthearted but it does effectively show great human attributes in times of war. Compassion, sacrifice, love, forgiveness, loyalty, and above all, the indomitable human spirit are all expressed in this movie.
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