In 1937, Nanking stands at the forefront of a war between China and Japan. As the invading Japanese Imperial Army overruns China’s capital city, desperate civilians seek refuge behind the nominally protective walls of a western cathedral. Here, John Miller (CHRISTIAN BALE), an American trapped amidst the chaos of battle and the ensuing occupation takes shelter, joined by a group of innocent schoolgirls and thirteen courtesans, equally determined to escape the horrors taking place outside the church walls. Struggling to survive the violence and persecution wrought by the Japanese army, it is an act of heroism which eventually leads the seemingly disparate group to fight back, risking their lives for the sake of everyone. Through treacherous surroundings and facing unimaginable evil, THE FLOWERS OF WAR, inspired by true life events, manages to tell a genuine story of hope, love and sacrifice. With nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, fate always has a way of bringing the most unlikely heroes together.
Adapted from Geling Yan’s historical novel 13 Flowers of Nanjing (Harvill Secker / Random House; 2012), THE FLOWERS OF WAR stars Academy Award® winning actor Christian Bale (The Fighter; The Dark Knight) as John Miller, an American trapped within the besieged city of Nanking when it is invaded by the Japanese Army. The ensemble includes 13-year-old Zhang Xinyi, here in her first film role as Shu, an innocent school girl who along with her fellow classmates is taken under Miller’s protective wing.
The Flowers of War (simplified Chinese: 金陵十三钗; traditional Chinese: 金陵十三釵), previously called Nanjing Heroes and 13 Flowers of Nanjing, is an upcoming historical drama war film directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Christian Bale, Tong Dawei and Shigeo Kobayashi. The film, which is based on the novel The 13 Women of Nanjing by Geling Yan, has been selected as the Chinese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards.
On November 7, 2011, it was announced that the film's North American distribution rights were acquired by Wrekin Hill Entertainment, in association with Row 1 Productions, leaving The Flowers of War to a limited release in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco for late December, 2011, expanding throughout the following year
The film is set in 1937 in Nanjing, China during the Nanking Massacre, at the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War. A group of escapees, finding sanctuary in a Church compound, risk their lives as they struggle to survive the plight and persecution brought on by the violent invasion of the city.
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