The Children of Huang Shi (2008)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Roger Spottiswoode

Writers:

Jane Hawksley (writer)
James MacManus (writer)

Release Date:

3 April 2008 (China)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | China | 1940s | Chinese Civil War | Journalist

Cast

Jonathan Rhys Meyers	...	George Hogg
Radha Mitchell	...	Lee Pearson
Yun-Fat Chow	...	Chen Hansheng
Michelle Yeoh	...	Mrs. Wang
Guang Li	...	Shi-Kai
Lin Ji	...	Horse Rider
Matt Walker	...	Andy Fisher
Anastasia Kolpakova	...	Duschka
Ping Su	...	Eddie Wei
Imai Hideaki	...	Japanese Officer
Sciichiro Hashimoto	...	Urbane Japanese Officer
Shinichi Takashima	...	Hostile Kempetai Officer
Xing Mang	...	Young Communist
Ruixiang Zhu	...	Japanese Officer II
Yuelong Fang	...	Rou Ding

Also Known As:

Children of the Silk Road (Australia)
Escape from Huang Shi (Singapore: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some disturbing and violent content.

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

Australia | China | Germany

Language:

English | Japanese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | USA:R | Singapore:PG | Hong Kong:IIA | Australia:M | South Korea:12

Filming Locations:

Chedun Studios, Shanghai, China

Company:

Australian Film Commission, The

Trivia:

About 10,000 extras were hired.

Heke is a hero

I watched this movie last Saturday, and here are some feelings of mine. "The children of Huangshi" brought me an vivid image of the reality during the pre-WWⅡ. George Hogg, also known as Heke was a courageous, insistent and responsible man. He treated the homeless orphans as ordinary innocent children while the Japanese enemy and the nationalists never showed any mercy to them. Children were victims of the wars. They lost their families, their childhood, and even their courage to live. Wars also raised the hatred in their mind, changing them into devils. In the movie, two echo scenes impressed me a lot： One is the photo of Shikai' family, the other is a photo of a Japanese soldier. Shikai saw his parents and his sister be killed atrociously by Japanese and since then he became dissociable and unreasonable and the only hope to him was the photo. When he got the chance to kill Japanese, he did it decidedly, only to find that a family photo holding in the soldier's hands. Heke tried to release the children's hatred and he wanted them to be normal children. At some aspect, he succeeded, because the children of Huangshi, e.g. Laosi, found his way back to be a happy child under Heke's education; however, the damage of the war was too huge to be cured. Most of the children were saved but not what they were used to be any more. Anyway, Heke is a great man. Although he is a foreigner, he is our national hero forever.