The Children of Huang Shi

source: The Children of Huang Shi

OK, so this story is based on true events, I can see why someone would like this story to be told. But why didn't they work with good writers, this story is cut in little pieces, cliché upon cliché and then tight together to make one piece out of it. The actors really don't know what to do with the lines they get and the director really didn't know what he wanted to tell. Is this a hero-story? Is this a love-story? Is this a historic adventure? Is this a war-story? I give one example: in the beginning of the story, the love-interest (Mitchell) is talking to the hero (Meyers) about how important it is that she is around, being a nurse, and knows that one scratch can lead to an infection and to death. So she tells that she cleans the wounds and tells the patient how important it is to do this as quick as possible, even if 'it's just a scratch'. Later on in the movie Meyers cuts himself when he's working on replacing a tire and tells Mitchell 'it's just a scratch'. And she SMILES at him. What the f?!! Wasn't she supposed to clean this wound as she told all those people she nursed in the war to do so they wouldn't die? Guess what happens to Meyers... And actually it's her fault I yelled at the screen annoyed. and please, don't even mention the monologues the actors get to work with during the movie. Even a first year scriptwriters school student would do better in writing them. So cliché and predictable. I pity the actors - they must have read the script before they said yes. Why did they accept such bad writing? They probably needed the money. The sceneries are beautiful, Michelle Yeoh has the best part and is the only actor that I believed. (maybe because she didn't have that many lines?). I'm afraid those are the only things that worked out well. The story is fabricated and doesn't have a nice flow, the actors really have difficulties working the lines they get from the writers and clearly the director didn't know what he wanted to do with this story. If it wasn't for the beautiful settings, and the fact that you could sense there was (somewhere) a story worth telling, it would have been a total waste of time watching this movie. Well it definitely was a waste of money making it, I would read the book if I were you.

This movie would have been better as a fantasy instead of a historical drama. It would have made more sense that way. Children of Huangshi starts off with a bang, appearing as if it's going to be some epic masterpiece, but by the end of the movie, you're left wondering where the story went. I'm not an expert on the specific details of history during this period, but after reading some other reviews, it looks like neither are the creators. Then again, I don't expect movies, even historical ones, to always be historically accurate. But what bothers me is that it's obvious this movie was made by some westerner or at least someone who doesn't actually know much about China and Chinese people. It's okay to be from a different culture, but please do your research. Every time Chow Yun-fat's character acted as if he stepped out of a Jackie Chan movie, I winced with pain. Since this movie was partially made by a Chinese production company, I'm even more disappointed. As for the acting, good job Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. At least he's easy on the eyes. The other actors did an all right job as well. Nothing awful but nothing to write home about. However, I (and the movie) could've done without the heavy dialogue. At points it sounded much too forced and unnatural, not to mention, incredibly cheesy. It also bothered me that by the end of the move, the plot seems to revolve around the main character and his romance. Shouldn't it be less about snogging and more about Hogg's relationship with the children? I thought that was the point of the story and that's why he's famous: helping kids in the face of war and cultural differences and not screwing some blonde chick. It doesn't take a hero to do the latter. Beautiful cinematography, but poorly written and poorly executed.

This movie is better titled "Lord Greystoke among the Chinese" since again the Englishman does well among the "savages" (Hogg's term, not mine). "Let's play hoops" he says. In 1937, basketball players were "cagers" not hoopsters. Alas, Hogg teaches Chinese orphans one-handed jump shops at a time when two-handed set shoots or two- handed bucket shots were the standard. This Tarzan also repairs a rusted steam generator, so much so that he provides power the enormous school building, and the place lights up! How did all those light bulbs survive when the school is in shambles from the war? Our Red Cross nurse leaves the school in March to return in May, during which time Hogg and his pupils manage to grow an enormous amount of sunflower plants in a new garden, while teaching English, basketball, and fair play. Jane (oops, I mean the nurse) practices medical blackmail to protect her purity by assuring that the natives "won't mess with me" for if they do they won't get their lockjaw medicine and die "very, very slowly." Better to see The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.

This is like a Schindler's List for the Chinese. It's a war story that focuses not on the terror and pain and atrocities, but on the good a person can do and it is based on a true story. Something that needs to be told and remembered. That being said, was it a well told story? Yes and no. It seemed terribly fragmented to me, moving from one scene to the other with the speed of a bullet. It is hard to "feel" the individual character changes because it all happens so fast. Of course, I couldn't expect a two hour movie to slowly tell a story that spanned many months in real life, but still. You can't show two friends entering China, then one dying and completely omit him from the story from then on because you don't have time. On the other hand, I hardly see the subject as appropriate for a mini series. Bottom line: good story, good acting, watch it if you feel the need for a good war time drama that inspires.

In 1937, the British reporter George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) travels to Shanghai expecting to cover the Japanese invasion of Nanking. However, the British consul does not give a visa to him since the Japanese authorities do not want journalists in the capital. George deals with a Red Cross driver that wants to get married and he assumes his identity to travel to Nanking with two other journalists in his truck. George witness and photographs an execution of dwellers by the Japanese soldiers but he is captured. When the soldier is ready to behead George with a sword, he is saved by the communist Chinese soldier Chen Hansheng, a.k.a. Jack (Yun-Fat Chow). George is wounded by a shot and Jack brings him to the Red Cross camping where the nurse Lee Pearson (Radha Mitchell) heals him. Jack sends George to an orphanage and he becomes responsible for sixty orphans. George improves their lives and every now and then he sees Jack, who has become his friend, and Lee, for whom he has fallen in love. With the Japanese occupation and the civil war between nationalists and communists, George decides to travel of about 800 km to a distant but safe land through the mountains and desert with the orphans. "The Children of Huang Shi" is a movie based on a true story about the life of a British journalist that saved sixty orphans during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937. The movie has magnificent cinematography and art direction, and a great cast, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Yun-Fat Chow and Michelle Yeoh. However, the narrative is cold and without emotions, and the only touching moment is in the credits, with the testimony of survivors that will certainly touch the heart of the viewer. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Órfãos da Guerra" ("Orphans of the War")

"The Japanese are not savages," insists George Hogg(Jonathan Rhys Meyers)to a fellow photo-journalist, while from their vehicle, we see refugees traverse the Nanking roadsides and the Japanese soldiers who keep the Chinese capital under siege. Both men find themselves in this foreign land on a mission to substantiate reports about a massacre. When George finds himself separated from his colleague, he witnesses a group of Chinese men and women being gunned down mass execution style. Although "The Children of Huang Shi" doesn't whitewash the violence that went down in Nanking, the filmmaker does temper the killing to a degree, in which ethnic cleansing never becomes the subject of the film. If you're expecting an adaptation of Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking", you'll be sorely disappointed. When our story begins, the massacre is over and done with. Since "The Children of Huang Shi" withholds from its audience the number of Chinese people involved in the slaughter, this enables the filmmaker to portray the Japanese as rational people. In one scene, George convinces an army general to call off his troops from searching for weapons at a random check-point. The filmmaker wants us to believe that the Japanese official would care about his soldiers contaminating the sterilized medical supplies meant for the sick and injured Chinese people. This show of clemency is downright laughable. In "The Rape of Nanking", Chang details instances in which women's babies were ripped out of their wombs, young girls being raped, while the city was reduced to rubble, and its people, literally, chopped into pieces. Later in the film, a Japanese soldier discovers the hat of a comrade placed on the head of a Chinese boy. George explains that the orphan found the hat on the ground during their sojourn. Even worse, one of the older boys points his gun at the Japanese contingent. Incredibly, an exchange of gunfire is averted, even though the historical record shows that the Japanese soldier had no qualms about aiming their guns at children. But let's be fair. Along with the HBO documentary "Nanking", the story of Japan's war crimes are finally being told to a western audience. It's about time. Although the orphans don't get enough credit for their own survival, George Hogg is deserving of the accolades that his self-evident heroism brought him. But just in case the audience fails to recognize what this man accomplished, Mrs. Wang, an opium dealer, tells George how wonderful he is. Lee(Radha Mitchell) seconds that emotion. She had her doubts when the nurse assigned George to the orphanage. And then there's the real-life survivors who offer their testimony about his greatness during the closing credits. The film never proves that the Japanese are savages, but Lee was in Nanking during the siege. If the audience knew about the nature of the attack, Lee's disproportionate anger over George's redecorating efforts on her living quarters, which inspires the nurse to storm out of the orphanage, would make this British woman completely insufferable. The less you know about "The Rape of Nanking", the better.

I just saw this in the theater and was REALLY looking forward to seeing it with the GREAT Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh, but although the scenery and large amount of money spent in making this, the film still falls flat. I am sure many people like Jonathan Rhys Meyers, but this guy CANNOT act to save his life!!!!!!!! Another reviewer thought that Radha Mitchell was wooden, but I didn't mind her performance although her Aussie occasionally slipped in. Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh's performances, while fun to watch, seemed a bit "phoned in", although the supporting cast of children wasn't too bad. The script was very, very weak and there were a couple of times when they had the Japanese fighter planes strafing the ground that you could DEFINITELY tell that they were squibs and did NOT come off as genuine bullets hitting the ground (too much spark and flash). Overall, really sad considering the time and effort that went into making this film. I likely WON'T pick this one up on DVD unless it's really cheap.

As a Chinese,I Was moved by Hogg.He was a foreigner to Chinese,but he did his best to look after all the children.At first,he thought the only thing he wanted to do was to let the world know the china's events.Teaching the children was not his purpose.But in the end,he began to attend to the children and finally he took them a safety place called Shandan.He liked peace so he wanted to the children lived in a peace place.But unfortunately,he was suffered from lockjaw. The life was not easy for the orphans at that time.A boy felt home's importance and finally suicided. We should remember the foreign friends who contributed a lot to China's revolution.In addition,we must treasure what we owe today.

After I exited the theater that screened 'The Children Of Huang Shi', I was on a cloud. This is easily one of the best films of 2008 (so far the other is Mongol). The plot concerns a foreign correspondent from Australia in China covering the Chinese/Japanese war in 1937, who gets in over his head by venturing out of the safety zone of Bejing, into the thick of the war, and gets involved helping an orphanage of Chinese war orphans. A woman doctor also gets tossed in for good measure in the proceedings. This is a finely acted drama that is a bit rough to watch at times, but is well worth the effort. You could do a lot worse than 'The Children Of Huang Shi' (does 'You Don't Mess With The Zohan' mean anything?)