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List Price: $28.96 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 12767
Released: January 20, 2009 |
| Our Price: $14.77 |
| Used Price: $3.09 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Set in war-ravaged China during the late 1930s, Huang Shi is based on true events. It's the story of a young Englishman, George Hogg (Rhys Meyers), who led sixty orphaned boys on a journey across the Liu Pan Shan mountains to safety on the edge of the Mongolian desert.
Description of The Children of Huang Shi:
The Children of Huang Shi is a powerful, inspiring film about a real-life, outsider hero who emerged from Japan's catastrophic invasion of China in 1937. A British journalist, George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) sneaks into Nanjing at the height of Japan's destruction of that cosmopolitan city. Rescued from certain death by a suave rebel named Chen Hansheng (Chow Yun-Fat), Hogg goes deep into China's countryside in search of another front to the war. Instead of furthering his career, however, Hogg is talked into taking control of a destitute orphanage occupied by starving, lice-ridden, half-savage boys. A roving nurse, Lee Pearson (Radha Mitchell), keeps Hogg focused on his task, provides him with medical supplies, and ultimately becomes his lover. But the former reporter has to figure many things out on his own, including how to inspire the boys to help fend for themselves.
With the Japanese closing in on the orphanage and the Chinese looking at the boys as likely soldiers, Hogg, Pearson, and Hansheng lead the kids on an extraordinarily strenuous, 700-mile hike to Marco Polo's so-called Silk Road, leading to the Gobi Desert. The second half of The Children of Huang Shi is taken up by this sometimes deadly labor, and director Roger Spottiswoode balances the dreariness of it with knockout images of mountains and eerie, desert vistas. The multi-national cast is the best thing about the film, which avoids canonizing the saintly Hogg by not ignoring his sins of pride (he refers to the kids as "my boys" to the wrong Chinese authority, and pays the price) and jealousy. Chow's jaunty persona adds an essential swagger to this Schindler's List-like story, but it's Mitchell's gritty, soul-weary performance that really grabs one's attention. --Tom Keogh
The Children of Huang Shi Reviews:
Movie review 
2009-10-25 - An excellent movie. I highly recomend it to any Jonathan Rhys Meyers fans, and those who are interested in stories based on historical fact. This was also a good love story without falling into the "chick flick" catagory.
Fantastic movie!!!!
2009-10-23 - I rented this because the title interested me, but was totally blown away by this movie! I had never heard of George Hogg, and was delighted to see that I could also purchase a biography on him when I bought the movie here on Amazon!
A piece of history 
2009-09-13 - "The Children of Huang Shi" is based on the true story of the English writer George Hogg, portrayed by Jonathon Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) and his quest to save the boys of a destitute orphanage. This takes place during the Japanese occupation of China around 1937. Radha Mitchell also stars in this movie as the nurse, Lee Pearson, who moved about China helping where she could. She travels with George and the boys on an extraordinary 700 mile hike to escape the Japanese. This trek takes them far into the bowels of China along Marco Polo's silk road in search of a safe place to live. The scenery is as amazing as the story. I highly recommend this movie.
Movie too short
2009-08-13 - At two hours in length, this beautifully photographed biographical film is still not long enough to flesh out the underlying story we are encouraged to imagine. The movie makes a good companion piece to The Last Emperor, as a record of pre-WWII China. But I do not know of a movie that fills in the psychology of the starving boys orphaned and raised wild by older boys -- their dreams, their fears, their codes of honor. The civilizing work of George Hogg and his allies, and its unexpected consequences, amount to another movie within a movie. And then there is the arduous long trek through mountains and out into the high Gobi desert, which tells yet another story of courage and perseverance that could have been expanded to satisfy my curiosity about the journey. How many animals did they lose along the way? Did their provisions last? Did the vegetable seeds and rice and grain they took with them do as well in sand as in the lowland mud?
Buy it. Watch it every year.
2009-08-03 - This is a very special film. It belongs in the category of great films that include, "Empire of the Sun", "Saving Private Ryan", and "Band of Brothers". Along with the growing collection of films detailing the lives of people who seemingly lose control of their life and then find the greatest rewards that life can give. This story is powerful and meaningful. Based on the true life experience of an amazing man. I recommend that you buy this film and watch it every year.
The Children of Huang Shi
Ocean Devil: The Life and Legend of George Hogg
