First Trailer for Christian Bale's 'The Flowers of War' Is Epic

Before he set out to work on the upcoming “Batman” installment “The Dark Knight Rises,” Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale teamed up with Zhang Yimou for an epic tale. The first trailer for “The Flowers of War” is out.

Yimou is known for “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers,” and is already getting major Oscar buzz for his latest film, which also happens to be the most expensive cinematographic production ever to be made in China.

Shot with mixed dialog in Chinese, English and Japanese, the film tells the story of 13 prostitutes who offered to replace female students that were being taken as “escorts” for Japanese soldiers during the 1937 invasion of China.

Almost 20,000 girls and women were abused and killed during the invasion, in what has come to be known as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking.

Bale plays a mortician who comes to bury the priest of Nanking but passes himself for one when he realizes that he can use his position to lend a helping hand.

“The Flowers of War” comes out in China on December 16 and will most likely be the country's bid for Foreign Oscar. A release in the US is yet to be announced since there's no distributor.