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Japan invades China in 1937, and its army overtakes the capital city of Nanjing. Twelve schoolgirls flee to a nearby church for safety. John Miller, an American mortician, flees to the same church. There, they find a boy, the same age as the schoolgirls, who was under the care of a priest (now dead). Soon thereafter, twelve high class prostitutes scale the locked gates of the church compound, and seek refuge inside as well.
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One would think that a church was safe, somehow exempt from the attacks and atrocities of war. Not the case in "The Land of Blood and Honey," by Angelina Jolie. Not the case, either, with Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War." Here, renegade Japanese soldiers storm the church, who were fortuitously killed by a surviving Chinese Major. Their regretful Colonel promises Miller and the schoolgirls, and installs guards right outside the gates. In the meantime, he invites the girls to sing a choral for him. Fearing for their safety, Miller declines the invitation. Now having lost face, the Colonel informs him that it is an order, and his soldiers will return the next day to pick up the girls. They tally thirteen of them. (Huh?) One of the prostitutes mistakenly ambles in, and is therefore counted as one of the girls.
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Horrified at what fate no doubt had in store for them, the schoolgirls scheme to commit suicide by jumping off the church tower en masse. Leader Yu Mo catches wind of their horrible plans, and persuades her fellow prostitutes to take the girls place. That, they did. The problem? There are only twelve prostitutes, and there must be thirteen of them, as counted. Enter: the boy, who offers to disguise himself as a girl, in order to make the tally.
In the meantime, Miller and the girls escape the church, in a truck that he fixed. Apparently the fate of the Thirteen Flowers of War remains unknown all these years, but they are celebrated for their martyrdom.
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