The Flowers of War Reviews
Birmingham Post
The filming techniques cross Saving Private Ryan with Zimou's own Hero and other dynastic, martial arts-driven Chinese epics.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Guardian [UK]
Bale is forthright and emotional in the role, and with a hint of boyish vulnerability, even reminds us of his 13-year-old self in Spielberg's Empire of the Sun.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
ViewLondon
Impressively directed and beautifully shot, this is a compelling, superbly acted drama that exerts a powerful emotional grip, though it's impossible not to suspect that certain liberties have been taken with the actual events.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Sky Movies
It is is impossible not to be moved. Bales sometimes overeggs his Western saviour yet is watchable throughout, imbuing Miller with a nobility that is only explained in the final reel.
Empire Magazine
As you'd expect, it's beautiful, emotional and exciting, if florid in style. Bale, beauties and English dialogue widen Yimou's appeal.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Cinema em Cena
Um filme que peca ao ouvir a expressão "espetáculo de crueldade" e conferir maior peso à primeira palavra do que à segunda.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Veering from the sensational to the maudlin, this is a compromised epic that panders to the Chinese audience.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Guardian [UK]
The Nanjing massacre is still a running sore in China's 20th century history, and Zhang is brave to take it on.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
SSG Syndicate
Visually stunning, it's an epic saga of survival and redemption.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7/10
Sacramento News & Review
... too long and slow, ... but it's beautifully photographed and performances are excellent ...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Kaplan vs. Kaplan
A beautiful, truly moving story of love and sacrifice within the brutality of war.
Kaplan vs. Kaplan
"The Flowers of War", a film that has grown on me, is an epic story whose 141 minute running time is never dull.
Boston Herald
Giving a seriously Marlene-Dietrich-like performance in her first major role, Ni Ni is spellbinding as the hooker with a heart of gold.
Full Review
| Original Score: A minus
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
What we have here is a movie that believes it is a massive and glorious heroic epic, when it's really a backlot melodrama.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Top CriticA strange hybrid of "City of Life and Death" and "Father Goose" that nevertheless, in the hands of Zhang Yimou, musters a few striking moments.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Movieline
While it's as blunt as any typical big-budget war epic would be, the film finds plenty of moments in which Zhang's skill as a filmmaker and his deft handling and interest in female characters shines...
Full Review
| Original Score: 7.5/10
TheMovieReport.com
What Zhang Yimou really does best--the epic scale of intimate human emotion.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
I can't get it out of my thoughts, and I recommend it highly.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Killer Movie Reviews
In the midst of unthinkable brutality, Zhang has found a savage poetry, not to soften the horror, but rather to compel the audience to watch it without being able to turn away. Using his trademark fascination with satu
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Boxoffice Magazine
The sheer scale of the movie should have broad ranged appeal among arthouse audiences, and maybe beyond.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
