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Children of Huang Shi, The
Sony Pictures Classics


5.1

based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 6 votes
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FILM:

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

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...

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

It radiates intelligence. Of how many historical epics can that be said these days?

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

What Spottiswoode lacks in subtlety and restraint, he balances with a heartfelt passion for the material.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

A tale as ploddingly familiar as it is good-looking and worth telling.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

One of those international co-productions full of good intentions and blandly polished results.

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.

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.

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.

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.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Beautiful but boring.

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.

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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Children of Huang Shi, The Sony Pictures Classics

Children of Huang Shi, The
Sony Pictures Classics