World War II · Film · 2011
The Flowers of War
金陵十三钗
As Nanking falls, an American mortician, a group of convent schoolgirls and courtesans from a nearby brothel take shelter in the same Catholic church and must decide who can be saved.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 1 places.
Stop 1: Catholic church in occupied Nanking
Key location
While Chinese soldiers make a last stand in the streets, John poses as a priest to protect the girls hiding behind the church walls.
What really happened
Japanese troops entered Nanjing, then China's capital, on 13 December 1937 after a short siege. Over the following six weeks they killed Chinese prisoners and civilians on a massive scale and raped tens of thousands of women; the postwar Tokyo tribunal estimated more than 200,000 dead, and Chinese estimates reach 300,000.
A handful of Westerners set up the Nanking Safety Zone, where around 250,000 refugees sheltered. The film adapts a novella by Geling Yan inspired by the diary of Minnie Vautrin, the American who ran a refuge for women at Ginling College. The church, the characters and the exchange at the heart of the story are fiction set against these documented events.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- 金陵十三钗
- Directed by
- Zhang Yimou
- Countries
- China, Hong Kong SAR China
- Languages
- Chinese, English, Japanese
- Released
- 2011
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- China & Southeast Asia
- Themes
- Combat
