Based on the novel “The 13 Women of Nanjing” by Chinese author Yan Geling, “The Flowers of War” tells the story of 13 prostitutes, women who volunteered to replace university students who were abducted as “escorts” for the invading Japanese soldiers. Christian Bale stars as the Catholic priest who shelters the women in his church while the troops pillage in an event that would come to be known as the 1937 “Rape of Nanking.”
The film is China’s official selection into the Academy Awards Best Foreign Picture category. It opens 16 December 2011 in China, no release date yet for us in the west.
