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Children of Huang Shi, The
Sony Pictures Classics

Children of Huang Shi, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 49 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.1 out of 10
based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 6 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for some disturbing and violent content

Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat, and Michelle Yeoh

Based on real events, The Children of Huang Shi is a sweeping but intimate story set against war-torn China in the 1930's. The film centers on a young English journalist, an American nurse and the leader of a Chinese partisan group who meet in desperate and unexpected circumstances. Together they rescue 60 orphaned children, leading them on an extraordinary journey across hundreds of miles of treacherous terrain, through snow-covered mountains and an unforgiving desert. Along the way they discover the true meaning of love, responsibility and courage. (Sony Picture Classics)


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Jane Hawksley
James MacManus
 
DIRECTED BY: Roger Spottiswoode  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 20, 2009 
Theatrical: May 23, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: Australia | China | Germany 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
It radiates intelligence. Of how many historical epics can that be said these days?
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67
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
It's a polished, beautifully shot story, and it acknowledges the messiness of real life. But like real life, it's often baffling and frustrating.
Read Full Review
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
What Spottiswoode lacks in subtlety and restraint, he balances with a heartfelt passion for the material.
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63
TV Guide Ken Fox
This formulaic adventure pays tribute to George Hogg, a true hero largely forgotten everywhere but China, where a statue of him now stands -- a rare honor for a westerner.
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63
Boston Globe Sandy MacDonald
What ought to be the pinnacle of the story - the orphans' odds-defying 500-mile march over snow-covered mountains toward the relative safety of the Mongolian desert - is shunted toward the end of the film and compressed to a near-footnote.
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63
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Tells an engrossing story of a remarkable man, but nevertheless it's underwhelming. Dramatic and romantic tension never coil very tightly, as the film settles into a contented pace.
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60
The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
Full of incident but nearly devoid of dramatic tension, The Children of Huang Shi is a based-on-fact saga that has lost much of its power on the long road to the screen.
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60
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Roger Spottiswoode directs with old-fashioned style, avoiding the saccharine with realistic depictions of a war-ravaged China (where he filmed) and a cast well versed in stiff-upper-lip.
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50
Variety Robert Koehler
Giving Jonathan Rhys Meyers the kind of manly yet paternal role Spencer Tracy once mastered, this carefully wrought international production relates the basic story of reporter George Hogg without any vibrancy, emotion or style.
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50
Village Voice Ella Taylor
A tale as ploddingly familiar as it is good-looking and worth telling.
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50
USA Today Claudia Puig
Sometimes the most compelling real-life stories make better documentaries than dramas. Such would seem to be the case with The Children of Huang Shi.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
You can be 100 percent in favor of rescuing adorable orphans from war-torn zones and still find The Children of Huang Shi a tough haul.
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50
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
If you can get past the Eurocentric focus, there are worse ways to pass the time than to see The Children of Huang Shi, if only because the glimpse into the time and place are captivating and the images are gorgeous.
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50
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding manages some lovely images, and some of Spottiswoode’s compositions remind you he's capable of fine work. But Hogg never comes to life, on the page or on the screen.
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50
Washington Post John Anderson
The best thing about "Children" is the cinematography by Zhao Xiaoding ("Hero," "House of Flying Daggers"), which is so distracting because it so out-classes the rest of the movie.
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50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
One of those international co-productions full of good intentions and blandly polished results.
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50
Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Director Roger Spottiswoode (Tomorrow Never Dies) uses the children and action sequences to good effect, but a lack of chemistry between Rhys Meyers and Mitchell makes the love story fizzle.
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42
Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
An old-fashioned story of courage and self-sacrifice in the face of war and deprivation. It's also sappy, boring and obvious.
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40
Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
Unfortunately, like so many movies that celebrate a historical hero, Children is plagued by an overblown sense of its own importance.
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40
New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Never achieves the David Lean style of epic it aims for - exterior vistas and interior dramas - but it has two charismatic performances, beautiful Chinese locations and an admirable lack of sentimentality.
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38
New York Post V.A. Musetto
Beautiful but boring.
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25
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
It's like "Schindler's List" crossed with "The Sound of Music," and Roger Spottiswoode directs it in a stiff, lifeless, utterly dated style of international squareness.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.1 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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