Trailer For Zhang Yimou's 'The Flowers of War', Starring Christian Bale

As previously published, GTBP has covered a bit about China’s most expensive film to-date being directed by Zhang Yimou.  Starring Christian Bale in The Flowers of War, the (estimated is USD)$100 million price tag is an extreme amount for the country and the director.  Thankfully, we now have a trailer to watch its splendid imagery.

Even though the high price tag, the film has become China’s highest grossing film with $83 million so far.

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Director Zhang Yimou Discusses 'Flowers of War', Speilberg's Involvement & Christian Bale

So what if The Flowers of War is the most expensive ever made in China?  Director Zhang Yimou is certainly not being affected by it.  Afterall, he has Christian Bale starring in his film, thanks to Steven Spielberg's involvment, about the Nanjing Massacre. That's got a recipe for Oscar written all over.

Mentioned at a press conference, Bale got involved with the film when Zhang "asked Steven Spielberg, who is a friend, to read the English script and recommend actors," who then recommended Christian Bale, having directed him as a child in 1987 for Empire of the Sun.

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Christian Bale to Star in an Epic Blockbuster...In Chinese.

Christian Bale is Batman.  This is common knowledge, unless you haven’t seen a movie in the past five years.  Then again, Christian Bale as Batman, with that slightly ridiculous voice he uses for the Dark Knight, is far from the most impressive performance of his career.  He shines better in small roles, or co-starring alongside another big name actor, as he did in 2006’s fantastic The Prestige with Hugh Jackman, or this year’s The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg, which is earning him a fair amount of kudos from the critics.

Also, he's kinda handsome.

Bale is a versatile actor, capable of going through insane levels of personal transformation for a role and always taking huge chances; well, today, this is a pretty big chance he’s taking, and it just might pay off.

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Weak 'A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop' Poster

We've been following the new Zhang Yimou movie pretty carefully. There's now a new poster for A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop from Sony Classics, and it confuses me a little bit. Watch the trailer and look at the images we posted previously and see how gorgeously rich the colors are. Then there's this, which is heavy on the red and uses a pretty brutal title font.

We said when the trailer came out last week that this strategy of tying the Coen Brothers into this because it's a retelling of their breakthrough film, Blood Simple, might not be the best way to go. Not because the Coens aren't great, but because you've got a guy like Zhang Yimou, one of the best filmmakers in the world, and all the studio wants to talk about is that it's a remake, which carries an automatic negative connotation.

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Trailer - Zhang's 'A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop'

I know I'm in the minority on this, but I'm really looking forward to Zhang Yimou's A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop. Most people cast it off as soon as they heard it was a remake of sorts of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, but to me, it's so far removed culturally from that film and Zhang Yimou is such a master filmmaker, I'm not worried in the slightest.

I'd stop beating the remakes-aren't-all-bad drum right there if Sony Classics hadn't driven home the idea that these two films are structurally related, but since that's the direction the studio wants to go, it's kind of hard to not bring it up. However, if there was no mention of Blood Simple here, I'd bet you $34 you'd have absolutely no idea it's related unless you really pay attention. See for yourself. And then watch it again because Noodle Shop appears to have a lot to offer for world cinema fans.

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