The Flowers of War (2011) on Netflix
1937, Nanjing. John Miller, an American mortician, comes to a Catholic church to bury its priest. Schoolgirls and prostitutes shelter in the compound, and he poses as a priest to protect them.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.5/1058,776 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes41%
Trailer
Plot summary
Japan invades China in 1937, and its army takes Nanjing, the capital. Schoolgirls flee to a church compound run by Westerners and take shelter there. John Miller, a mortician from America, arrives to bury the priest and finds George, a boy the priest raised and taught English. Prostitutes from a brothel by the river break into the church and hide in its cellar. Miller puts on priest's clothing and pretends to be a priest so the invaders will leave the refugees alone. He also repairs the compound's truck, meaning to get everyone out of the city. A Chinese officer named Major Li is in the compound too, the last man left of his troop.
Cast
- Yangchunzi Yuanas Mosquito (as Yuan Yangchunzi)
- Jia Sunas Hua (as Sun Jia)
- Yuemin Lias Dou (as Li Yuemin)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Flowers of War (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In China, distributor New Pictures Film's request to raise the minimum ticket price brought a threat from eight cinema circuits to boycott The Flowers of War in a dispute over the distributors' share, on November 22, 2011.
- With an estimated production budget of $94 million, Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War was the most expensive film in Chinese history at the time, a mark the article notes has since been surpassed.
- Director Zhang Yimou said one of the challenging aspects of the film was the "very slow pace" of negotiation with Chinese censorship authorities during the editing process.
