Most of the focus on Christian Bale at the moment is for his upcoming performance in Christopher Nolan‘s Batman finale, The Dark Knight Rises. However, he is also due to star in another very promising project from one of China’s leading filmmakers. Zhang Yimou has been behind such great films as Raise The Red Lantern, Hero and House Of Flying Daggers, but this will be his first collaboration with a leading western star even if it is still to be set in the east. So although this trailer is mostly in the English language, the ratio of English to Mandarin spoken in the film is set to be approximately 40:60.

Based on Yan Geling‘s novel, The 13 Women of Nanjing, Bale stars as an American priest in 1937 Nanking, China who shelters Chinese escorts and university students in his church whilst the Japanese soldiers invade. This latest trailer is the best yet, in my opinion, it seems to capture the distraught anguish and violence of the time whilst also providing some emotional depth in addition to what looks like riveting cinematography. Although the forays of John Woo and Tsui Hark were not successful, that was mainly due to poor casting choices, and I for one hope this encourages more eastern filmmakers to collaborate with western stars, it’s a trend that could hopefully catch on with both Kim-Ji Woon and Bong Joon-Ho set to make intriguing English language debuts.

The Flowers of War is China’s official entry into the 2012 Academy Awards as well as the nation’s most expensive movie with a budget of approximately $90 million. Early reviews have been giving a very positive vibe. Check out the trailer below [via Deadline]:

Flowers of War will have one week qualify runs in NY beginning December 21st, 2011 and then in in Los Angeles and San Francisco starting December 23rd, 2011. It will expand earlier next year.

What are your thoughts on the new trailer? Does this film look oscar worthy to you?