Movie review and director interview: The Children of Huang Shi

by John P. Meyer

It took director Roger Spottiswoode eight years to get The Children of Huang Shi made and distributed - a long and torturous movie birthing process. So, does his brainchild end up being worth all the Sturm und Drang?

To the extent this could be said of any motion picture, I suppose you could say "yes" in regard to this one. It's an inspiring, absorbing and beautifully told tale of a neglected figure in Chinese (and British) history named George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers of Match Point and August Rush). Hogg, an ambitious, risk-taking journalist, traveled to China from England in 1937 to cover the upheaval stemming from the Japanese invasion of that country. Hogg ended up putting his journalistic activities aside in favor of caring for - and then relocating across a thousand miles of dangerous, hostile terrain - an orphanage full of children, left to their own meager devices. Had Hogg not come to their aid, they would surely have been ground up in the machinery of warfare, either as recruits into the Chinese resistance forces or as roadkill along the route of the Japanese Imperial advance.

It's also the tale of Lee Pearson (Radha Mitchell), the lovely but battle-hardened Australian nurse who supports Hogg's efforts; and Chen Hansheng (the great and charismatic Chow Yun-Fat), a resistance fighter with Communist affiliations who goes by "Jack" when amongst his English-speaking comrades.

George Hogg, typewriter in hand, sneaks into the Nanjing war zone having spent time on Japanese home turf, where he developed an appreciation for the culture and civilization of the invaders. "The Japanese are not savages," he assures his two companions before they go their separate ways amidst the bullet-shattered walls of the city.

This belief is soon destroyed along with the lives of scores of Nanjing civilians who Hogg witnesses being rounded up and shot from his perch in the window of a nearby building, at which point he deduces that the Japanese make more cordial hosts than they do invaders. As officers wade through the bodies administering coups de grace by Nambu, George realizes that the photos he's just snapped may very well put his own life in jeopardy.

Hooking up with Jack at a miraculously opportune moment, Hogg gets a look at Nanjing life from the embattled resistance point of view. He begins to realize what he's gotten himself into when he witnesses the execution of one of his companions by the "civilized" occupying forces.

It's Lee Pearson who introduces Jack to the orphaned boys he will eventually champion. He accompanies her on a circuit-riding nursing expedition and is left at the rundown boarding facility amongst its rather skeptical occupants. The youngsters, led by disillusioned upper-classman Shi-Kai (Guang Li), welcome him to their world by luring him into the woods and beating him with sticks - a far from auspicious get-acquainted session.

Perhaps Hogg calculates that sticks are less injurious than bullets, but for whatever reason he determines to stick it out by demonstrating the sort of stiff upper lip British determination that eventually wins his young charges over - all except Shi-Kai. With periodic visits from Lee, and the supply-providing assistance of opportunistic profiteer Mrs. Wang (Michelle Yeoh, lovely as ever in middle age), Hogg whips the battered facility into self-sustaining shape, and soon the bordering garden is loaded with produce.

But soon the vicissitudes of war bring the formerly-isolated sanctuary within reach of deadly combatants, leading to the abandonment of all that Hogg and his wards have struggled to build, and an epic journey that will lead them to their destinies - or their deaths.

Along the way, the attraction that George and Lee have thus far successfully sublimated springs to the surface. A teaming up with Jack on the road to their remote destination lays bare an uneasy triangle of affections - the resolution of which is dictated by exigencies of both personal and national survival.

Ever present is the danger of encounters with various warring parties, but most perilously the Japanese. Sacrifices and acts of heroism - along with the assassination of innocence in the face of brutality - are prices that must perforce be paid.

As you'll learn in the audio interview with director Spottiswoode, filming was done on location in China under unusually difficult conditions. There's extensive use of golden hour cinematography in which the already spectacular landscapes are bathed in sheets of saturated color. Computer generated effects are employed to lend the attacking warplanes very real menace (hey, I thought they were ACTUAL PLANES!) and the distant thunder of bombs impacting just across the ridgeline has been skillfully layered into the soundtrack.

Mr. Rhys Meyers turns in a sympathetic and believable performance as the legendary George Hogg, while Chow is perfectly cast as the John Wayne of the piece, ready to ride off into the sunset at the appropriate juncture. Ms. Mitchell has perhaps the most difficult acting challenge, portraying a nuanced individual who is tormented by demons from her past while struggling to maintain her equilibrium amidst the insanity of consciousless conflict. She is a joy to watch onscreen, as always.

The last reel of The Children of Huang Shi can't help but remind the viewer of the concluding minutes of Schindler's List, incorporating contemporary on-camera interviews with surviving members of the troupe of Chinese kids who journeyed across the mountains with George Hogg - and who continue to sing his praises. Not surprisingly, the only public statue of a British citizen in China is one dedicated to Hogg.

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A small group of mixed media folk (print and online) sat down with director Roger Spottiswoode in a meeting room at the Hotel Crescent Court while he was in town to promote the film. It was a laid-back, noticeably informal affair, as you'll discover from the drink-pouring and snack-munching noises occurring in the background (and sometimes the foreground).

A few final words about the interview: it's bloody long. (Thus the multiple sections.)

Here are highlights of each segment:

1. Eight long years to get the film made

2. Background re. the Japanese invasion of China: "They just killed everybody in sight."

3. "Mao ... finished the job in many ways."

4. Working with Michelle Yeow and Chow Yun Fat

5. Origins of the script

6. On the necessity of the bombing of Hiroshima

7. Jungian psycology and the IRA

8. Spottiswoode's intention to return to Rwanda for another film