Some people ask me why I watch movies.. well my answer is that movies are a powerful tool that can showcase deep emotions , thrills, or heart warming scenes.
I was at cinileisure one day in the early morning. I got there early in order to buy movie tickets for my friends for an evening show. Having some time to kill, I decided to watch another movie while waiting. I looked at the cinema timings and saw that this movie "Flowers of War" was showing. I briefly checked it out at IMDB and realized the ratings were all pretty good. What's more it was a historical war film about China, something that I have an interest in.
It turned out that this was a movie that literally brought me to a deeper realization of myself and the world around me. To me, it was a perfect movie and dare I say the best movie I ever watched. Everything from the storyline to the acting to the action to the conflicts to the character development was top notch and simply breath-taking. What I would like to discuss with you guys is some of the life themes that I've picked up from this movie.
1. Mortality and moral consciousness
The film depicts the atrocities that may or may not have happened during the Nanking Massacre. This was basically a very brutal part of Chinese history. The Japanese invaded the city of Nanking and based on historical records, went on to rape, kill and loot. According to Chinese sources, the total death toll was about 300,000. A quick search on wikipedia shows some of the atrocities that you never thought humans would ever commit. The film depicts this very well in some scenes where you see dead bodies lying on the floor, women being raped (no nudity) and even young convert girls being attacked. All these scenes are very skillfully shown and you can practically feel the tension and fear that the girls are going through.
This may be a fictional account but it scares me to think how brutal human nature can be if in a desperation to survive, we lose our moral consciousness. The effects of war can make one lose just that and herein lies the question of the fear of the law versus our instinctive moral consciousness and if we have no concept of a higher being, how far would we go to uphold righteousness.
(Spoiler Alert) there's a scene in the movie where we see a noble Japanese army commander. You can see in the film that he has a high moral character and even yearns his for hometown. However, he was tasked to bring forth the official order for the convent girls to sing at the celebrations of the successful occupation of Nanking. Now firstly, it is obvious that something bad would happen to them if they went and secondly, it is 'brutal' to ask girls to sing a song of celebration over the successful destruction of your homes.
When asked if he could do something to block the invitation, the army commander simply brushed it aside, saying 'it was under official orders' and there's nothing he can do about it. The fact is, you could see from his expression that he knew what was going to happen to the girls and he didn't want to do it as well. However, not doing it would mean betraying his country and this would be considered dishonorable to his leaders. Herein lies the question. Would you betray your moral consciousness even if it may seem like its the right thing to do in the eyes of people that you highly respect, in this case, your country? How far are you willing to go to help ?
The Japanese commander seemed like he is a good man as he sent troops to guard the safehouse after a recent invasion. He even promised the safety of the girls. However, we all know the girls were kept there for a reason and his didn't want to disobey orders to try and help find a way to forsake the performance of the girls at the Japanese celebrations. In reality, he was not ready to abandon his country for the sake of his morale consciousness and to do the right thing.
This is in contrast to another character you see in the movie, one of the convert girl's father. He was seen as a traitor as he was a close confident of the Japanese. However, although he betrayed his country, he did it in order to use his connections to get his daughter safely out of Nanking. It must have been hard on him as in the film, he was very heavily criticized and even mocked by his own daughter. There was a line in the movie where he even said "In the eyes of my daughter, I am a bad man" However, despite all of this, he played a big part in using his connections to help the convent girls escape. It was very risky but he was willing to sacrifice all to help the girls escape the performance. He could have just refused to help the girls to protect his own safety but he chose not to. Even at the end when he didn't get to see his daughter and was asked what 'his daughter' was saying, he didn't say a word. He was willing to forgo his own desires for the benefit of others.
End of part 1!
