Cast: Christian Bale, Shigeo Kobayashi, Paul Schneider
Director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, Hero, House of the Flying Daggers) tells an epic story of love and sacrifice in THE FLOWERS OF WAR, starring Christian Bale and introducing Ni Ni. The film, set during Japan's 1937 invasion of China, is told from a young girl's point of view, not as a history lesson, but as an intimate, elemental and paradoxically universal celebration of the human spirit. Bale stars as a dissolute Westerner who seeks refuge in a Catholic church. There he meets a beautiful Chinese courtesan who helps him rescue a group of schoolgirls from a terrible fate at the hands of the Japanese. THE FLOWERS OF WAR was adapted by screenwriter Liu Heng from the novel by Geling Yan. The film is produced by Zhang Weiping (marking his tenth collaboration with Zhang Yimou) under his New Pictures Film banner. The executive producers are ChaoYing Deng, David Linde, and Bill Kong. Key crew members include Director of Photography Zhao Xiaoding, Production Designer Yohei Taneda, Costume Designer William Chang Suk-Ping, Composer Chen Qigang, and Make-up Designer William Chang Suk-Ping.
