George Hogg was a British journalist in the 1930's who managed to get into Nanjing during the Japanese occupation of China, and who witnessed examples of Japanese atrocities while he was there. Circumstances led him to an orphanage, where he took it upon himself to keep the 60 or so children in the orphanage safe from the Japanese by eventually leading them on a 1000 kilometre hike to a place of safety on the edge of the Gobi Desert.There are a few scattered scenes of excitement here, revolving mostly around the Japanese. Those scenes are well done, with some especially well portrayed strafing runs by Japanese fighter planes against civilian targets. For the most part, though, this is not an exciting movie. It's a worthy movie. It's a story that deserves to be told. Jonathon Rhys Meyers was quite believable as Hogg, and there's a great depiction of China - all the way from the scenery along the way as the group journeys, to some reflection (probably not enough) on the tensions between the Communists and the Nationalists, who worked out an uneasy alliance with each other to defeat the Japanese during the occupation.The movie seemed to me a bit too long. In particular, after the opening few minutes, when the Japanese atrocity in Nanjing occurs, the next hour or so until the journey begins is quite slow going. Overall, though, this is a good tribute to George Hogg, and I especially liked the very moving reflections offered as the closing credits rolled by some of the orphans (now adults) who shared their memories.

The only reason I decided to watch The Children of Huang Shi was because of the presence in the cast of Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, two legends of Asian cinema whose work has been hugely enjoyed by me on many action and martial-arts movies.But, before watching The Children of Huang Shi, I already knew I was not going to see Yun-Fat sliding on a stairs' rail with a weapon on every hand, killing gangsters to right and left; and that I was not either going to see Yeoh spinning through the air before kicking the oppressor (or something similar) of a humble town.So, let's say that my expectations for this movie were not too big, and even like that, the final experience did not leave me very satisfied, although I cannot say I disliked the experience.Director Roger Spottiswoode made good works on previous war films he directed (Hiroshima, Air America and Under Fire) and he backed to present a realistic war setting in The Children of Huang Shi, because he could create a good atmosphere and very well filmed war scenes.On the other side of the coin, we have a not completely solid screenplay which falls on many clichés: the stoic Occidental hero helping the "primitive" Asians; the nurse who has a harsh attitude but who is secretly vulnerable; the innocence of the kids going beyond of the horrors from the war...I wanna let clear that all my complains are against the weak structure from the movie and not against its good intention of honoring the memories of all the people who died during the war portrayed in here.It is not difficult to imagine the story of this movie being made during the 50's, with Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis in the leading roles, but with France instead of Japan as the oppressed country.However, that stale sensibility does not grow old with too much grace, and now, in the 21st century, the pretension of setting the English hero imposing his values on the "inferior" foreigners skirts on the most condescending racism.Or, expressing all that in other words...would this movie have been made if the hero was not an interpreted by an attractive English actor (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) with good commercial expectations? I am used to see that kind of hypocrisy on Hollywood films (an example which comes to my mind at the moment is The Last Samurai), but it is obvious that also international productions like this one are not free of falling on that temptation.However, in spite of not having left me very satisfied, I think The Children of Huan Shi deserves a slight recommendation because it is not boring, the performances are decent and the direction is good.If I had to summarize this film, I would say it is not bad, but it is mediocre and I feel it could have been better.

Last year wifey won some tickets to see this at the cinema. We never got round to it, but on the weekend it was wifey's choice of movie (being her birthday and all) and she picked this."Children Of The Silk Road" is based upon the remarkable true story of journalist George Hogg (played by the annoying Jonathan Rhys Meyers, in his finest work since "Bend It Like Beckham), a Brit who during the 30's found himself in China looking for untold stories and ended up being the saviour to a heap of young orphan boys.Hogg bravely chose to go to China in the 30's to try to tell the world about the atrocities being committed by the Japanese soldiers on innocent civilians. He gets caught by the Japanese early on into his trip and is about to be murdered when he saved by a small band of Chinese fighters, headed by Chen (Chow Yun-Fat, in his finest work since "Ban wo chuang tian ya"). Chen helps him on his way, where he eventually comes across an orphanage in an abandoned grand building. Here he meets up again with US nurse Lee (played by Radha Mitchell, in her best work since some guest appearances on Aussie sitcom favourite "All Together Now"). She challenges George to stay and help these abandoned boys rather than just run back home like a little nancy boy. George stays and ends up dramatically changing the boys lives. Word soon reaches him though that the Japanese will be coming, so he must take them on a seemingly crazy 700mile journey through the rough Chinese winter to refuge. Will they survive and reach freedom? See it to find out.Not bad and certainly inspiring in pieces. Meyers pulled it off reasonably well considering how unappealing he is to men in general, if not for a few scenes that were uncomfortably awkward. One of the better movies set in China I've seen, perhaps even better than "Rush Hour".

THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI is a long (greater than two hours) epic tale that happens to be a true story of an extraordinary hero's life and gift to humanity during World War II. If as a film the telling of this story is a bit shaky in spots, it is probably due to the episodic series of events that happened very quickly and under existing conditions of profound stress. Yet despite the occasional misfires in production this remains a bit of history we all should know. George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a journalist assigned to Shanghai in 1937 and with his colleagues he plans to explore the extent of the invasion of China by the Japanese. Under the guise of Red Cross workers his small band manages to enter Nanjing where now alone due to the loss of his friends to battle he observes and photographs the atrocities of mass murders of the people of Nanjing. He is captured by the Japanese, tortured when his confiscated camera reveals his terrifying photographs, and it is only by acts of fortune and the aid of a Chinese Nationalist Chen Hansheng (Chow Yun-Fat) that he escapes. Hogg probes the Chinese countryside for further evidences of the evil of the Japanese invasion, and he finds a village of children (adults are all absent) and realizes that he is in an orphanage without a leader. At first reluctant to assume the role of guardian of these impoverished and filthy frightened children, he soon accepts his responsibility and is challenged by an Australian nurse Lee Pearson (Radha Mitchell) to become not only the caretaker but also the father/teacher/provider/role model these children so desperately need. Seeing the advancing of the Japanese, Hogg decides to take his wards 700 mile away to a small village by the Gobi desert reachable only by the infamous Silk Road. It is this journey and the way both the children and Hogg are affected by the challenge that absorb the greater part of the film. Observing the transformation of George Hogg's view of the world is made credible by Jonathan Rhys Meyers' performance. The cast of children often steals the limelight, but with supporting cast members such as Chow Yun-Fat, Radha Mitchell and Michelle Yeoh as an opium merchant the story never lacks color and character. The look of the film is dark, but the message of this story is full of light. Here is a bit of Chinese history we should all know! Grady Harp