Product Details

• Actors: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Yun-Fat Chow, Michelle Yeoh, Guang Li
• Directors: Roger Spottiswoode
• Writers: James MacManus, Jane Hawksley, Simon van der Borgh
• Producers: Alan D. Lee, Arthur Cohn, James MacManus, Jonathan Shteinman
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click .
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 20, 2009
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001KEHAEE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,791 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Children of Huang Shi" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Nearly Impossible Story to Tell or Believe: True Heroism January 23, 2009

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

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, January 09

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Movie too short August 13, 2009

By Jane W. Elioseff

Format:DVD

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?

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Self-Sacrifice Can Be Transformative January 31, 2009

By D. Hupp

Format:DVD

This film is about a little known story of the exploits of British journalist George Hogg during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.

The cast is excellent with very good performances by Michelle Yeoh, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat & Jonathan Rhys Meyers. An evocative musical score and some gorgeous cinematography of the wilds of Tibet combine to make this a treat to behold.

During the first 25 minutes or so of the story, it appears that the film will be an action thriller, but the "heart" of the story reveals the transformative power of self-sacrifice & caring in a hostile political and physical environment. It is an amazing story.