Children of Huang Shi is a 2008 film based on the life of George Hogg, an independent journalist for the Associated Press during the Second Sino-Japanese War. I should warn you right now, the film is rate R. But then again, what movie that takes its viewers into the heart of Civil War China on the eve of World War II could not be rated R. The film's few scenes of the Japanese occupation and the Nanking Massacre were brutal and all too accurate. However, this film is about much more than Nanking. It is about a man who takes it upon himself to save over sixty orphaned boys from the terrors of that time by attempting a 700-mile march along the Silk Road.
As with all films, it is an abridged and altered version of his true story. The film has been criticized for ignoring the role of Rewi Alley, a Communist New Zealander celebrated in China's revolution. The film also turned real life New Zealander Kathleen Hall, who was associated with Alley, into an American without a past. Their romance adds to the story but is inaccurate. Several other inaccuracies occur within the film. Perhaps the most blatant inaccuracy occurs near the end of the film. At the risk of giving a bit too much away, let’s just say that the cut he received in the movie while fixing the truck didn’t happen. In truth, aftering bringing his boys to safety, Hogg stubbed his toe while playing basketball with them in July 1945. However, the events following that small injury were accurate. Overall, this film is destined to become one of our Historybusing favorites, and lucky, George Hogg left a first hand account of his life—an autobiography entitled I See a New China.
Click here for the film’s official website
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