A March Through Bitter Sea

The young inexperienced journalist George Hogg ventures out to the front at Nanking to report on the war. As an eyewitness to atrocities committed by the Japanese army Hogg finds his own life in jeopardy. Saved by Chinese communist fighters he finally ends up in an abandoned orphanage in the remote Huang Shi.

Hogg feels compassion for the life of those neglected orphans. Despite the fact that he cannot speak a word Chinese, Hogg tries to build trust with those young boys, and from thence to give them some education. When the war is drawing alarmingly near to Huang Shi, Hogg decides to march with the children over the mountains to the much safer Shandan that is located 1100 km further away in the desert. This is in brief the true story of the children of Huang Shi.

The cast of The Children Of Huang Shi is above average with big names such Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh. The seasoned Hollywood director Spottiswoode however did not get more out of it than a mediocre movie. Jonathan Rhys Meyers acting is sympathetic and vigorous. Radha Mitchell, as a tough nurse, is a worthy match to Meyers and her acting shows strong vigor and valor.

Chow Yun Fat shows that he is great actor but as a hardened communist warrior he seems to be very talkative. Like a schoolteacher he dwells on the so-called Bitter Sea, which seems to be an ancient name for China.

Spottiswoode has made serious efforts to portray the relationship between Meyers and the children of Huang Shi. He however failed to further deepen those ties in the movie. Also, the personal traumas of the young boys are not further explained.

Michelle Yeoh plays a brilliance role in The Children Of Huang Shi. As a female trader she does her acting with much grace and eloquence. She seems to feel affected by the charm of the young and handsome Meyers, but as a wise Chinese lady she knows well how to hide her personal feelings. Director Spottiswoode has done a great job by capturing this piece of great acting.

The pace and tension are high at the start of The Children Of Huang Shi. Spottiswoode however did not manage to keep hold of them in the course of the movie. At the end tension has turned level giving the audience a hard time to keep theirselves focused.

The camera crew did the filming excellently. The shots of magnificent sceneries are unequalled, adding an extra dimension to the movie. Although originally set up as a war epic, The Children of Huang Shi has become a bit more like documentaries when slices of interview with surviving orphans are shown who make tribute to their hero George Hogg.

Despite the little flaws the ordeal on The Children of Huang Shi has to be a positive one. The significance of this movie lies in the fact that it draws our attention to a war in that part of the world which is little known to us, and it reminds us of the achievements of the long forgotten war hero Hogg and the “little Long March” that the children of Huang Shi have made more than sixty years ago.

Yee Chuen Leung
Chief Editor