Film review: 'The Children of Huang Shi' pays homage to unselfish heroism
It's certainly easy to take potshots at "The Children of Huang Shi." It's another film in which a white person proves to be the savior of the members of an apparently less fortunate race. It's solemn and old-fashioned. And its lead couple -- Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Radha Mitchell -- don't exactly blaze with star power.
Beautiful scenery is a hallmark of "The Children of Huang Shi," about a group of orphans in war-torn China during the Japanese invasion of 1937. Zhu Jialei Sony Pictures Classics
Rated R for some disturbing and violent content
Length: 125 minutes
Released: May 23, 2008 LimitedScore: 2.5
Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Yun-Fat Chow, Michelle Yeoh, Guang Li
Director: Roger SpottiswoodeProducer: Peter Loehr, Jonathan Shteinman, Martin Hagemann
Writer: Jane Hawksley, James MacManus
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
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But why scoff at a movie about unselfish heroism? "Huang Shi" never achieves the emotional impact or excitement one might expect from a based-on-a-true-story narrative about a group of orphans on a thousand-kilometer trek through war-torn China during the Japanese invasion of 1937, but its anti-cynical faith in the value of altruism is encouraging.
Meyers stars as George Hogg, a British war correspondent in Shanghai who finds himself a refugee in a rural orphanage after witnessing the infamous massacre of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers at Nanjing.
To his surprise, Hogg becomes keenly interested in the welfare of the boys. Soon he is their "teacher," aided on occasion by a nurse (Mitchell), a kindly opium den operator (Michelle Yeoh) and a Communist rebel (Chow Yun-Fat) whose conflicts with the Nationalist Chinese complicate his country's attempts to resist the Japanese.
To escape the escalating violence, Hogg decides to lead the boys on an epic trek to an outpost near the Gobi Desert that is too isolated to be of interest to the Japanese. This rescue effort has caused some critics to compare "Huang Shi" to "Schindler's List," but the movie is closer to "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness," a 1958 film with Ingrid Bergman as a brave missionary. Like "Sixth Happiness," "Huang Shi" probably won't inspire anybody to become a filmmaker, but it may encourage viewers to take a greater interest in the world outside their day-to-day experience.
A co-production of China, Australia and Germany, "Huang Shi" was directed by Roger Spottiswoode, whose varied resume ranges from the Tom Hanks dog comedy "Turner & Hooch" to the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" to "The Matthew Shepard Story." A no-nonsense journeyman, Spottiswoode rarely plays with his camera; he apparently believes beautiful Chinese locations, handsome period production design and pretty actors provide all the visual interest his movie needs, and he's pretty much right.
"The Children of Huang Shi" is playing exclusively at Malco's Ridgeway Four.
-- John Beifuss, 529-2394
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