http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_flowers_of_war/
0% among "top critics."
Common complaints:
schmaltzy, caricatured, overblown, heavy handed - something more akin to a cheap Asian TV soap opera on a lavish budget than the mature work of art to which the filmmaker aspired.
Too bad. I wanted this to succeed.
I have to agree with these complaints.
I suppose the movie is serviceable, if you're in the mood for melodramatic entertainment, but don't expect anything special and certainly no "mature work of art". The story is predictable and by the numbers and it's not a visual spectacle either. It's big-budget schlock imho.
Could be why it lost out to the Iranian film, A Separation, this evening at the GG.
A Separation, by contrast with this film, is running at 100% fresh.
Had it been some holocaust propaganda *beep* then everybody would have been all praise for it. But since this is a Chinese film dealing with "Chinese holocaust", nobody gives a *beep*
shareHey "ali," are you Pakistani? Have you seen both The Flowers of War and In Darkness?
The Oscar nominations were just announced:
Bullhead (2011): Michael R. Roskam(Belgium)
Footnote (2011): Joseph Cedar(Israel)
In Darkness (2011): Agnieszka Holland(Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar (2011): Philippe Falardeau(Canada)
A Separation (2011): Asghar Farhadi(Iran)
Yes I am Pakistani. No I haven't seen "In Darkness" but since you mentioned it, I had a look at its IMDB page and it deals with same jewish propaganda. Although I will still watch it as I don't dismiss movies because of it although we have already enough of it now.
shareHolland's fathers' parents were killed in the ghetto and her mother was a Catholic who fought in the Polish Underground during World War II. Do you think she should suppress her intense feelings about her family's traumatic past and make only movies that don't haunt her psyche? I'm also curious whether you think there is much antisemitism in Pakistan and how you feel about that?
Just because I deny holocaust or don't deny it but do not think it went to the extent it is normally portrayed doesn't make me antisemite.
Only 6 million (or may be 7) Jews were killed in holocaust but do you know how many Russians and Chinese were killed?
20 million Russians and 15 million Chinese!
You didn't answer either of my questions. What did you mean when you said you didn't think it went to the extent it's normally portrayed?
Are you aware that most massacres don't involve a state-sponsored Final Solution? Examples of true genocide include the Armenian and Rwandan genocides, and even those were less systematic and thorough than the genocide which took place in Nazi Europe.
I answered your questions very well if you read my reply again. By the way there is another Nazi style apartheid regime in place in Middle East if you know what I mean.
Seems like Jews didn't learn anything from WW2.
Where did you answer my question about whether there is much antisemitism in Pakistan, or whether the examples you cited involved a state-supervised Final Solution? Where is your answer to the question of whether people whose families experienced genocide should suppress the feelings that lead to moviemaking?
Regimes supporting apartheid come in all varieties but very, very few support a Final Solution. Even Pakistan, which practices class, ethnic and gender apartheid doesn't do that.
I do agree that most people of the world make similar mistakes again and again. What has Pakistan learned from British imperialism, for example? At least we can agree to condemn apartheid, bigotry and cruelty wherever we may find it.
WHOA whoa whoa. Are you really going to start listing off genocides, and NOT start with the Americas? Multi continental genocide for multiple CENTURIES. BARELY apologized for, and still celebrating one of the initiators, Columbus.
shareHaha thats probably true. But personally I think Zhang yimou has an impossible job. There is a reason this topic hasn't been touched in mainstream movies... it is a disaster movie, and no one wants to watch a 2 hour long sob story. I agree there were some scenes that felt a bit cheesy in western sense but the cinematography was top notch. The art direction was excellent.
shareI agree with this that the movie was around 10, 15 minutes too long.
shareA movie that portrays China as anything else but the villain.
The nanking massacre, which even the most dedicated western historians simply don't want to read up on.
Are you surprised a few white-haired U.S 'top critics" dislike this film?
'You're not a democracy, hence everything you do, and have ever done is wrong.'
Meow.
No, it is a thinly vieled propaganda piece. That is why Chinese audiences love it, but no one else does.
To be clear, I really liked the movie but I was aware of what it was. I like chinese cinema but I know ahead of time that I will be watching something with nationalistic undertones.
Ironically, the Chinese government won't let its own citizens watch The Act of Killing, a far superior film about an anti-Chinese genocide that dwarfs the Nanjing massacre in scale, while matching it in ferocity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Act_of_Killing
Even educated Chinese know nothing about the 1965-66 genocide in Indonesia although, recently, some have been finding out by reading online reviews of The Act of Killing. Still, the subject remains taboo and the 2013 film, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, has never been shown in mainland Chinese theaters.
One might ask, why would it be fashionable to "bash" Japan but not Indonesia when the crimes against Chinese in Indonesia were, if anything, even more horrific? The only explanation I can come up with is economic and strategic. Long term, Japan is China's competitor in the world economy whereas Indonesia constitutes a strategically vital source of raw materials for China's civilian and military sectors now and in the foreseeable future. Chinese nationalism is convenient in the case of Japan, inconvenient in the case of Indonesia.
Next time someone chastises Westerners for not caring enough about the Nanjing massacre, I will be thinking of Beijing's double standard.
At first I assumed you'd already seen the movie, so I asked you, "Specifically, how do you respond to the two posters on this board, Sablicious is one, who have seen it and who agree with the critics that it unsuccessfully combines mawkish melodrama with epic spectacle?"
They probably thought it was a Batman Sequel.
shareGreat, just what imdb needs, another educated troll! And one who loves to hear himself (or herself) talk...
Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention.
To say this is a japanese-hate racist movie is like saying Schindler's list (and hundreds of other WW2 movies) are German-hate racist movies. Duh! Anyone with a little little wee bit of history knowledge (and I'm not sure it includes Americans, cause so many of you can't even point out a welllnown European country on the map) knows that Japan was a cruel extremist imperialistic country who were plain monsters to other parts of Asia. Probably not a coincidence they hook up with the other extreme country at the time, Germany. Japan became victims when the Bombs fell, but before that, don't forget they were huge huge villains to the whole world.
Btw, I love Japanese culture so I'm not a Japs-hater, I'm just stating this. It's also annoys me to no end we (the west) need to portray China as bad guys all the time, they have a horrendous bad government, which is is unique in its kind today (ultra-capitalist-communistic), but it doesn't make its people bad, and it doesn't take away the history. China's history and culture is probably the most impressive of all time.
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Those so called "film critics" who gave this film 27% have no souls.
share[deleted]
I’ve learned long ago that you need to form your own opinion about a film. Don’t let a critic tell you what to like.
I’ve loved films that are critically acclaimed. I’ve also hated other films that are critically acclaimed.
I’ve also loved some films that are critically panned. So who cares what they think? I guess critic ratings can be used as a guide, but ultimately I hope you realize that your opinion is the most important of all. It’s your experience and your time.
"I’ve learned long ago that you need to form your own opinion about a film. Don’t let a critic tell you what to like."
I agree. I loved this movie, to hell with the critics.