http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_Huang_Shi
The Children of Huang Shi
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| The Children of Huang Shi | |
|---|---|
 U.S. theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Roger Spottiswoode |
| Produced by | Arthur Cohn Wieland Schulz-Keil Jonathon Shteinman |
| Written by | Jane Hawksley James MacManus |
| Starring | Jonathan Rhys-Meyers Radha Mitchell Chow Yun-fat Michelle Yeoh Guang Li |
| Music by | David Hirschfelder |
| Cinematography | Zhao Xiaoding |
| Editing by | Geoffrey Lamb |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics (USA) |
| Release date(s) | April 3, 2008, Asia May 23, 2008, US |
| Running time | 125 minutes |
| Country | Australia, China, Germany |
| Language | English, Chinese, Japanese |
| Box office | $7,782,470[1] |
Contents[hide] |
Plot summary [edit]
George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is a young British journalist from Hertfordshire in England. In 1938, during the early days of the Japanese occupation of China, he sneaks into Nanjing, China, by pretending to be a Red Cross aid worker. Arriving in Nanjing, Hogg witnesses and photographs the poverty, ruins, and corpses on the streets. He proceeds to write a daily journal about his findings when he is interrupted by the sounds from outside. Upon peering outside the window, Hogg witnesses Japanese soldiers round up Chinese refugees and proceed to massacre the group. He anxiously takes photos of this event by the window. Later on at night,Hogg is captured by the Japanese while photographing them committing atrocities. He is about to be executed when Chen Hansheng (Chow Yun-fat), a Chinese communist resistance fighter, saves him. While hiding in the rubble with Hansheng, Hogg witnesses the execution of two of his colleagues by the Japanese. Overwhelmed by shock, he inadvertently reveals their presence. A firefight ensues, and Hogg is wounded. He wakes up to Lee Pearson, (Radha Mitchell), checking on his wounds and discovers he has been brought to a rebel camp. With nowhere to go for now, Hansheng tells Hogg, on Lee's suggestion, to rest at an orphanage housing 56 young boys and only an aged grandmother to take care of them. However, on the night of arrival, he is called out by one of the boys to a strange location and is savagely attacked with sticks by the orphans. Thankfully, Lee arrives just in time and threatens to abandon the boys, leaving them without medical supplies or food. Lee explains to Hogg that she runs the orphanage and drops by from time to time with supplies.The next day, at Lee's insistence, Hogg helps her to convince the boys that the treatment of lice by flea powder does not hurt. Lee's demonstration of the treatment on a naked Hoggs in the middle of the courtyard manages to convince the boys and they all promptly accept treatment. However, Lee asks Hogg to take care of the boys and states that she will be leaving for two months from March to May. Lee also leaves Hogg and the orphans with a donkey. However, Hogg replies that he has no intention to stay at the orphanage, but instead go to the front lines to write and spread the word about the war. As Hogg is leaving, he spots the grandmother looking down at Hogg and reflects on his short memory at the orphanage. Reluctantly, he returns to take care of the children. Over the course of the next few days Hogg gains the boys' respect by repairing the lighting, cleaning up the old school (which is the orphanage), and being their teacher. However, as for food, the grandmother had previously shown Hogg with a handful of maggot-infested rice, that there was close to nothing to feed the boys.
Hogg makes a trip to town with one of the boys to seek a wellknown and wealthy lady, Mrs. Wang,(Michelle Yeoh), with a business deal in mind. Hogg proposes to Mrs. Wang that he can provide her with vegetables if she supplies him with food and seeds for now. Mrs. Wang tests Hogg to see if he had the skill and knowledge to do so by asking him to identify certain seeds. Hogg passes the test easily and returns with the boy to the orphanage leading his donkey full of food and seeds. He starts to plow the land beside the orphanage and with the help of one of the orphans, successfully grows a flourishing vegetable garden along with beautiful and tall stalks of sunflowers.
Fleeing from the nationalists who want to conscript the boys into their army to fight the Japanese, they make a three-month journey across the snow-bound Liu Pan Shan mountains to safety on the edge of the Mongolian desert, the first 900 km on foot. To their relief, for the last part of the journey they are supplied with four trucks.
At the destination they are supplied with a building that they turn into a new orphanage. In 1945 Hogg dies of tetanus. This was foreshadowed by Lee, when she had described the horrors of the disease to him earlier.
The film features the Rape of Nanking[2] and the Sankō Sakusen,[3] and ends with a few brief interview snippets with some of the surviving orphans.
Cast [edit]
- Jonathan Rhys Meyers as George Hogg
- Radha Mitchell as Lee Pearson
- Chow Yun-fat as Chen Hansheng
- Michelle Yeoh as Mrs. Wang
- Guang Li as Shi-Kai
- Lin Ji as Horse Rider
- Matt Walker as Andy Fisher
- Anastasia Kolpakova as Duschka
- Ping Su as Eddie Wei
- David Wenham as Barnes
Critical reception [edit]
The film received mixed reviews from Western critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 31% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 71 reviews.[4] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 49 out of 100, based on 22 reviews.[5] The New York Times gave the film an overall positive review, praising the acting and its "realistic depiction of war-ravaged China".[6]The film has been criticized for ignoring the role of Rewi Alley, a Communist New Zealander celebrated in China's revolution. Conversion of the nurse played by Radha Mitchell from a New Zealander (Kathleen Hall, associated with Alley) to an American also received negative attention.[7] The omission of Alley in particular has been called a blatant misrepresentation by at least one critic.[8]
Box office performance [edit]
The film grossed around $7.4 million worldwide,[9] including $1.6 million in China and Spain, and $1 million in the US and Australia.[10]References [edit]
- ^ "The Children of Huang Shi (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
- ^ "China News".
- ^ "The long march of a forgotten English hero". The Times (London). February 12, 2007. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
- ^ "The Children of Huang Shi Movie Reviews, Pictures — Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
- ^ "Children of Huang Shi, The (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
- ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (May 23, 2008). Invasion of the Heart. The New York Times.
- ^ "Film review: Children of the Silk Road".
- ^ "Children Of The Silk Road". The Sydney Morning Herald. July 3, 2008.
- ^ "The Children of Huang Shi (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
- ^ "The Children of Huang Shi (2008) - International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
External links [edit]
- Official website
- The Children of Huang Shi at the Internet Movie Database
- The Children of Huang Shi at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Children of Huang Shi at Metacritic
- The Children of Huang Shi at Box Office Mojo
- The Children of Huang Shi at AllRovi
- James MacManus (scriptwriter). "The long march of a forgotten English hero".[dead link] Times Online. February 12, 2007.
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