The Children of Huang Shi Trailer Starring Chow Yun Fat
I still have yet to see the documentary Nanking, but from what I hear it’s pretty brutal and difficult to watch. It tells the horrific story of the Japanese invasion of China back in late 1937/early 1938, where the Japanese soldiers committed numerous atrocities on the population such as rape, murder and looting. Now we have a fictional retelling in the works called The Children of Huang Shi, centering on a British journalist named George Hogg who helped a bunch of orphaned Chinese kids escape the country.
Director Roger Spottiswoode (Turner & Hooch, The 6th Day) is just coming off a somewhat similar movie in Shake Hands with the Devil, his dramatized account of the Rwandan genocide and U.N. officer Romeo Dallaire’s attempts to save as many lives as he could. (You gotta love how these stories all focus on the one heroic white guy… but I digress.) The Children of Huang Shi is apparently the movie that Chow Yun Fat decided to do instead of John Woo’s Red Cliff. He stars alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Michelle Yeoh and Radha Mitchell. It looks alright I suppose… the trailer feels kind of cheesy, but the story certainly seems interesting enough. I still think I’d rather watch the documentary though. The Children of Huang Shi hits theatres on May 23rd. For more info and a Quicktime version of the trailer, check out the movie’s official website.
Comments (2)
I’m on the fence about this one as well. I’m certainly curious but the trailer doesn’t really strike my fancy much.
Posted by Marina on March 26th, 2008I saw this movie about a month ago. I wasn’t going to comment on it, but I was searching for posts about Red Cliff which I saw a couple of days ago. I don’t know why Chow Yun Fat decided to do this movie instead of Red Cliff since Red Cliff has the higher profile.
This movie held my attention because I wasn’t familiar with the real-life story this movie was based on. I didn’t know how it was going to end. I think the “heroic white guy” is kind of ordinary, but maybe that’s the point. Heroism doesn’t really take courage; it just takes a person to act morally and do the humane thing. I’m sure many heroes don’t get recognized. If you can make a difference in at least one person’s life, then that’s good enough.
Posted by Reed Farrington on July 25th, 2008Leave a Reply