I am about 40 and have been watching movies for 25 years. I must say I am no a professional except knowing what movie moves me keeply. This movie comes from a huge and heavy background. My history teacher cried sadly when she gave me the class about the darkest time in Chinese Modern history. For those who give cold comments about the movie, I confessed I tried hard to hold my tears next to my wife in the movie theatre.

But the moment "little George" said: "there is no other way!" My salty tears kept rolling out! I hope people respect those victims and stopped saying this piece of history does not exist. There were brave American medicals and priests who risked their lives at that time to keep journals and photo about the crimes.

Apart from prejudice, I consider that this movie is very controlled in a lot of ways. For many educated Chinese, we all read a lot of documents/short films and photo that were amazingly made by the Japanese soldiers themselves for showing off and promoting a sense of fears at that time.

I am glad such scene is made in a very controlled yet enlighting manner. For a Chinese viewer, the burden to watch this movie is extremely heavy, especially before X'mas.

I am glad this story is told in a small angle that reflects part of the whole picture. Apart from the history, it is a good film. Those characters are not as complex as the original novel. But as a whole it shows how a normal/powerless person could choose to do in one of the worst moments in modern history. No one is born hero. In war time,life may not worth more than a bullet, regardless which social class one is in. This movie tells a good story and I appreciate the making of such a touching film. One buddhish came to my mind: "a split of thoughts determine heaven or hell. " I would give a 8 because the film is solid and touching. However, it certainly is not an entertaining film for X'mas! I also appreciate those Japanese actors in the film. I knew from TV that they returned to the film making without delay after taking care of their families in earthquake!

A lot of things about this movie are quite different from what I expected.

First of all it isn't a docu-drama with too many characters that squeezes every incident about the atrocity into a few hours. Instead it is actually an intimate story about relatively few people which makes a more effective if less informative movie than some of the recent grand productions from China.

Secondly it isn't graphically violent. There are battles, shootings and rape but it doesn't have Saving Private Ryan type close ups. It would be too depressing and morbid if it had.

Thridly, a good portion of it is in English and the subtitles are clear so it's suitable for an international audience.

Fourthly, this movie is actually driven by an unexpectedly fascinating and bizarre story. It is about an American mortician (Bale), a group of convent girls and a group of prostitutes all hiding in a church in the middle of war torn Nanking during the Massacre. Some parts of the plot have fantasy elements eg the part where 1 Chinese soldier fights a whole group of Japanese soldiers/rapists. Brought to mind Inglorious Basterds. There are some very tense and scary moments like the first invasion of the Japanese into the Cathedral and the 2 prostitutes in the city later on. The romance isn't a big part. There are some lighter moments of humor eg the makeover which is kind of astonishing. There are some touching and not over sentimental moments. The horror of the Massacre is shown but in a more intimate scale.

Christian Bale does an earnest interpretation even though he has some silly parts in the beginning. Actress Ni Ni is quite beguiling as a courtesan with a heart of gold. Their relationship is a bit clichéd with a white man and a Chinese prostitute.

The sets and productions are top notch and have an authentic and well photographed feel and look.

Overall this movie is far more watchable and uniquely fascinating than expected. Don't miss it.

The Flowers of War is a gritty and well-made film with a story set in a "protected area" of Nanking during the worst atrocity to occur anywhere in the Pacific war.

With sensitivity to a squeamish audience used to the fake horror of B movies, you'll see the slaughter of many unarmed civilians and the very brutal rape of the schoolgirls hiding in the Safety Zone but broken into anyway by Japanese soldiers. You'll see gang rapes followed by the immediate and pointless murder of the victims. You will see a supposedly "nice" Japanese officer who loves music et cetera but will later enslave all 13 schoolgirls for gang rape at a Japanese celebration.

What you will NOT see is the true depiction of the horrors inflicted on the civilians of Nanking by the Japanese. No depiction of pregnant girls being raped then cut open and having the fetus stabbed, no rapes of little children, cut open if that was necessary to effect the rape. No, it's all cleaned up, or nobody would watch it. (Will this account even survive the IMDb review?)

Witnesses to the Rape of Nanking are/were numerous and diverse. Lots of foreign nationals witnessed the crimes. There is even actual movies taken of the crimes -- at the time they were happening.

Personally, I'm not anti-Japanese. World War II was a long time ago and the leadership of Douglas NacArthur following the war changed the Japanese forever. I've visited Japan as a tourist and purchased five Japanese cars. But history is history. The Flowers of War is well worth your time; but keep in mind this is the cleaned-up version of true and prolonged horror.