The Flowers of War Trailer

UK Release Date: 3rd August 2012.

Stars: Yimou Zhang (director), Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Zhang Xinyi, Tong Dawei, Shigeo Kobayashi.

Plot: In 1937 China, during the second Sino-Japanese war, a mortician, John arrives at a Catholic church in Nanjing to prepare a priest for burial. Upon arrival he finds himself the lone adult among a group of convent girl students and prostitutes from a nearby brothel. When he finds himself in the unwanted position of protector of both groups from the horrors of the invading Japanese army, he discovers the meaning of sacrifice and honor.

You probably haven’t heard of any members of the cast of The Flowers of War other than Christian Bale but that shouldn’t come as any surprise as this is a huge made-in-China epic. Whilst you may not be familiar with the name of director Yimou Zhang you may be more familiar with a couple of his works; Jet Li’s Hero and the brilliant House of Flying Daggers made him a name to be noticed among the world of cinema in the early noughties.

It seems strange that Christian Bale is in a film with a load of Chinese people just because we are used to seeing him in American or British films but it becomes clear from reading some interviews that he found the experience very educational and entertaining and could help him bring another level to his acting ability. The Flowers of War, at an estimated budget of $90 million, is the most expensive production to ever come out of China.

The Flowers of War has already been released among many nations and is coming to the UK a little late. The film was actually shot before The Dark Knight Rises and perhaps they want to try and make money off the back of Bale’s popularity as Batman. Despite holding a 7.6 rating on IMDB The Flowers of War didn’t go down well with critics but was still nominated for the Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Language Film (it didn’t win). Go see it and make your own mind up though.

The Man With The Iron Fists [Red Band Trailer]

Stars: RZA (director), Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, Jamie Chung, Cung Le, Byron Mann.

Plot: In feudal China, a blacksmith who makes weapons for a small village is put in the position where he must defend himself and his fellow villagers.

The Man With The Iron Fists is the directorial debut from Grammy award winning Wu-Tang Clan rapper RZA, co-written by him and Eli Roth, produced, in part, by Quentin Tarantino. The trailer doesn’t really give much away but it looks as though it has enough to entertain fans of Tarantino’s style of directing and it reminds me strongly of Tarantino’s Kill Bill; Lucy Liu features in both and the style of Kill Bill was reminiscent of Asian martial arts films I think.

As we don’t get much plot from the trailer it is difficult to tell who will be the main characters of the story but with Russell Crowe signing on you would expect him to play a rather key part. Although the film is in the English language and is from the United States it clearly wants to try and capture the essence of the Asian martial arts films which always feature fantastic fight scenes and stunts which are always incredible to see and the trailer shows that there is a lot of potential for that style here.

The films original cut was over four hours long and there were talks of splitting The Man With the Iron Fists into two film however it was eventually cut down to just an hour and a half. And though I think the trailer looks exciting this news makes me wonder just how good the film will really be; sure if they cut down from four hours to ninety minutes then what is left should be the very best but if they were able to just discard two and a half hours of the film will what’s left just be average too?

No release date has been stated yet for release.