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China cinema has undergone remarkable growth over the past decade thanks to substantially improve technical and aesthetic qualities (Rawnsley & Rawnsley 2011). When mentioning the rehabilitation of the Chinese film industry, many academics assert that it is the achievement of continuous learning and improving under the forces of “Hollywood" globalization (Song 2018). The works of Zhang Yimou, one of the most Chinese celebrated film directors in both Mainland and oversea market, are exemplars of how Chinese cinema responds to the pervasiveness of Hollywood cinema. This paper will scrutinize Zhang's "The flower of war" to explore Chinese filmmakers' responsiveness to Hollywood cinema. Hollywood inevitably is the main source of inspiration for Chinese blockbusters. In the earlier day of pre-2000, Chinese cinema featured four major categories of cinema which are alternative film, art film, commercial firm and leitmotif film (Zhang et al. 2007). However, under the flooding of Hollywood films into the Chinese market, the government decided to promote the domestic industry by stimulating private corporations to participate in the production of the high-budget commercial film to compete with Hollywood blockbusters (Chu 2010). As a result, Chinese cinema observed the euphoric age of blockbusters in the 2000s with nongovernmental funds accounted for 75% of film productions in 2005 (Chu 2010). Many films with a huge production cost were released, such as Hero (2002) at $US35 million and The Promise (2005) at $US45 million (Zhang et al. 2007). These extravagant investments have generated impressive results for the Chinese market that domestic movies surpassed Hollywood movies in the exhibition and accounted for over half of the market share since 2004 (Aranburu 2017). The positive outcomes persuade Chinese producers to hold a conviction that high-budget movies are the best way to ensure financial returns in the competitive business environment (Song 2018). Moreover, the success of these high-scaled movies in the international market helped Chinese producers recognize the potential of the oversea market as a new territory to invade in the age of globalisation. Thereby, Chinese filmmakers have increasingly built partnerships with Hollywood counterparts to make Chinese products more accessible to the global market (Song 2018). ‘The flower of war' (2011) by Zhang well-exemplifies the traits of this mindset that the movie was the most expensive film of China by the time with the estimated product cost of $US94 million and was a collaboration between Chinese and Hollywood producers (Zeitchik 2011).

Chinese cinema’s responsiveness to Hollywood is not only in terms of economics and business model but also in cinematic aesthetics. The prints of Hollywood in Chinese films can be observed in the spectacle-centred framework and its appealing Hollywood storytelling techniques such as causality, redundancy and deadlines (Su 2016). Zhang also borrowed Hollywood's classic white saviour narrative to develop the structure of The Flower of War. The white saviour is a cinematic trope in which white protagonists portray their virtue by rescuing or supporting people of colour from their plight (Bell 2013). This narrative appears in an array of films genres in Hollywood cinema. Hollywood filmmakers have utilised this trope to shape the hierarchical relationship between the West and Asia in the public imagination (Shimizu 2007). In a collection of American movies set in China such as China Girl (Hathaway 1942), Love is a Many Splendored Thing (King 1955), and The World of Suzie Wong (Quine 1960), the storyline that the Western man adventure into an unfamiliar land and chivalrously protect a Chinese woman has turned into a recurrent pattern (Yang 2014a). Such a narrative structure has been claimed to depict White superiority and construct cultural imperialism (Yang 2014a). With the assumption of adopting Hollywood cinematic vernacular would allow oriental stories to become more accessible to the foreign audience, The Flower of War reinvented the white saviour paradigm to recite the Nanjing Massacre (1937-1938). The Nanjing Massacre, one of the worst national indignities caused by the Japanese Army is the source of inspiration for many generations of Chinese filmmakers. In conventional Chinese films about the event such as Massacre in Nanjing (Luo 1987), Don’t Cry Nanjing (Wu 1995) and The City of Life and Death (Chuan 2009), the narrative is often focused on the masculine Chinese heroes and the tale of communist-led forces defeating Japanese rebels which reverberate mainstream sentimental nationalism and gratify audience's patriotic pride (Yang 2014b). However, Zhang opted for the white saviour narrative to translate the local story to international viewers on the age of China's remodelling its image on the world stage despite the lack of convergence between Chinese heroism and the classic Hollywood tale.

The Flowers of War was released in China on the 74th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. The movie has grossed $US95 million at the Chinese box office to become the top-grossing Chinese film of 2011 and the sixth biggest release of all time (Orzeck 2012). Despite the ambition for internationalism, the movie failed to entice Stateside moviegoers to come to the theatres and grossed an anemic of $308,164 in the U.S. box office (Rotten Tomatoes n.d.). The movie received mixed responses from both American critics and public audiences. Generally, critics shared a consensus that Zhang’s stylistic flair in The Flowers of War was highly

acclaimed, yet his colourful treatment and romanization of a historical genocide evoked many disputes (Hale, 2011; Morris 2012). This reaction implied that Zhang's adoption of a Hollywood formula fails to attract American audiences.

As Zhang used to be a cinematographer (Crow n.d.), the cinematography is the greatest strengths of the film. Zhang marshalled his creative team to produce astonishing cinematic sequences and period detail, especially in the production design for the church and characterdefining costume. Moreover, the movie bloomed with jarring and stunning colours to foster visual irony. There were various moments when a dash of colour, whether the silk of a cheongsam dress or a stained-glass window, shimmer through the dust of war and the ashes of the city in ruin as a glimmer of hope and life. There were also scenes where colour was used more oppressive, particularly when a striking blood streak appeared on the tip of a sword or splashed over a curtain. The huge red and white cross on the courtyard of the church, the symbol of peace and humanitarian, created a poignant juxtaposition with the Japanese flag, which signified an imminent atrocity.

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