Trailer For Zhang Yimou’s ‘The Flowers Of War’ with Christian Bale
An international trailer for Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers Of War, China’s official entry for this year’s Oscars, has made its way online (via ONTD). The film centers around the Nanking Massacre of 1937 when thousands of civilians were murdered by the invading Japanese troops. Christian Bale stars John Haufman, an American priest who sheltered schoolgirls and prostitutes from the slaughter. The film was shot on a $90 million budget, making it one of the most expensive film made in China to date.
I don’t know if it’s just me but I feel this trailer was badly put together and just a collection of melodramatic shots with very little in terms of telling us what the story is about. Nonetheless, this looks to be quite impressive visually and let’s not forget that Zhang Yimou is a well respected director with a solid track record including two Oscar nominations.
No U.S. release date has been set yet but expect a distributor to pick it up for a limited run at some point or another. Check out the trailer below:
18 Comments
Trailer seems alright to me
Good!
This looks like it might be good though that poster isn’t really helping because it looks Bale is about to sing the “Powerpuff Girls” song.
It’s more the “Am I seeing a side boob?” look to me ahah
Looks too much like Saving Private Ryan but I’ll give it a rent.
Yea but the war was obviously a centerpiece of the whole ordeal and the massacre of civilians.
I was actually more excited about this before I saw the trailer. The story sounds incredible, but the trailer just looks like one explosion after another.
Explosion, Bale acting intense, explosion, Bale yelling, explosion…
You forgot to add in the random snippets of what appears to be a sex scene with Bale
Unless if your counting that as “acting intense” ;P
You all gotta watch City of Life and Death instead. The trailer made it look like a regular Hollywood war movie.
Also, we all gotta understand that there’s really not a trailer industry in China (or all over Asia, really) – people generally don’t get hyped over trailers – anyone who watches a lot of Asian films should know the difference in marketing, instead they go for actors, directors and people involved.
The fact that it’s a film about Nanjing is already enough to make people interested. The fact that it’s a Zhang Yimou film is another… add Christian Bale and Hollywood hype, it’s got enough press.
Oh excellent insight Amy. I wasn’t aware of these issues and this could possibly explain why this trailer is a bit iffy.
I don’t care how inelegantly cut the trailer is, I’m intrigued. I like seeing Bale run the gamut and, well, I like Yimou’s vision and I’d be curious to see him make something worth my time– which he hasn’t done since House of Flying Daggers.
Yea I would give it a viewing despite the shoddy trailer. Given the premise of the story and the people involved, it certainly is intriguing enough.
I hadn’t heard of this, but I’m not all that excited following the trailer. I too thought it was badly put together. I’m getting tired of Bale yelling and being intense, and this seemed to include all of the film’s highlights. What is up with that poster, too?
I guess they don’t have a movie poster industry either ahah
The propaganda calls are starting already. I’m curious if that will matter come Oscar time.
There’s always going to be a little part of me that hopes that Yimou will once again return to the cinematographer’s scene and create something as breathtaking as ‘Yellow Earth’ was. Still, trailer doesn’t look bad in the context of it all (i.e, international trailer for an Asian film) and while I prefer his films from two decades ago (‘Red Lantern’, ‘Qiu Ju’, ‘Red Sorghum’, etc) this film could once again peak my interest in one of the great Fifth Generation Chinese filmmakers.
Was looking forward to this, but now I’m not so sure. How well a trailer is put together means nothing in comparison to a film, but this trailer was still pretty disheartening.
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