What part did Christian Bale play just before returning to the cape and cowl in “The Dark Knight Rises?”

“Flowers of War,” now on home video, is a Chinese drama about the Japanese occupation of Nanjing in 1937. Bale plays John Miller, an American mortician traveling through the battlefield to reach a church and bury the priest who has died there. Despite the atrocities happening around him, Miller hopes to do his job, get paid and move along.

Instead, he becomes the only hope of survival for those hiding inside the church. These are about a dozen convent schoolgirls; George (Tianyuan Huang), the deceased priest’s young protégée; and about a dozen prostitutes.

They say light shines more brightly in darkness, and that line adequately sums up this story. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say some characters selflessly decide to give their lives for others. This made the movie one I’m not likely to forget.

Bale is right on target, but the character of George still haunts me — not necessarily in a bad way. I’m a fan!

Watch Sasha McBrayer’s reviews at www.bryancountynews.net.