A Movie Review on 'Flowers of War’

choi

Laurie Burkitt and Tom Orlik, Zhang Yimou’s ‘Flowers of War’ Sumptuous But Lacks Subtlety. China Real Time, Dec 12, 2011 (Hong Kong Time; available now).
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealti ... electively-nuanced/

Quote:

"That might play well with the home crowd. But playing to nationalist sentiment in China risks alienating the wider foreign audience that Zhang is presumably angling for by placing an American at the center of the action.

"China’s film industry , ranking ninth in international box-office revenues, generated ticket sales totaling 10.17 billion yuan (roughly $1.5 billion) in 2010, up from 6.2 billion yuan in 2009. The U.S. topped the global market at $9.87 billion.

"With a budget nearing $100 million, “Flowers of War” is the most expensive Chinese movie ever made.

Note:
(a) dissolute (adj; Latin dissolutus, from past participle of dissolvere to loosen, dissolve):
"lacking restraint; especially : marked by indulgence in things (as drink or promiscuous sex) deemed vices <the dissolute and degrading aspects of human nature — Wallace Fowlie>"
(b) Devils on the Doorstep
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_on_the_Doorstep
(鬼子来了; a 2000 Chinese black comedy film produced and directed by JIANG Wen 姜 文)