About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.
- Awards
- 1 win & 3 nominations
- Urbane Japanese Officer
- (as Sciichiro Hashimoto)
- Director
- Writers
- Jane Hawksley
- James MacManus
- Simon van der Borgh(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAbout 10,000 extras were hired.
- GoofsThere's several scenes of Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 'Zero' fighter planes strafing Chinese civilians and Nationalist soldiers in 1937-38. The Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter plane would make its combat debut over Chungking, China in August 1940. Prior to that time, the Japanese were employing imperial Army Nakajima Ki-27 fighter planes with the fixed landing gear and the imperial Navy Mitsubishi A5M, also with fixed landing gear, later codenamed, "Claude", by the Allies. The Allies later codenamed the Ki-27, "Nate".
- Quotes
George Hogg: [say something in Chinese]
Chen Hansheng: [impressed] Very good!
George Hogg: Did you understand it?
Chen Hansheng: Yes, you said, please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a pumpkin.
- SoundtracksJi Wei Qia Qia
Written by Min Yao and Di-Yi Chen (as Di Y Chen)
©1955 EMI Music Publishing Hong Kong
All Rights Admin & Licensed by EMI Music Publishing Australia Pty Ltd.
The version I saw was dubbed completely in Chinese and had English subtitles. As it stands now its a good but rather standard film about a man who tried to do something in the face of war. The film stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Hogg. He's fine, but I don't think he's given much to do since much of the action seems to be reduced to cliché, even the romance with the broken Australian nurse has the feeling of been there. Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yoeh have small but important roles (respectively) as a general who befriends Hogg and a black marketeer who helps him. I liked it but didn't love it (its one of those films thats "almost.." but isn't and falls between the cracks). Perhaps because of the possibly bad subtitles or more likely the clichéd script the under appreciated Roger Spottiswoode used just isn't great. This isn't to say there aren't a couple of great set pieces, there are, the attack on the train in particular, but its not enough to raise the film from the near great to the great, or from nearly very good to very good. It just sort of misses. The just sort of misses feeling was re-enforced after I read some pieces on line which gives more details on the real George Hogg (He needs a miniseries about his life not two hour film) 6ish out of 10
- dbborroughs
- Apr 27, 2008
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Những Đứa Con Của Hoàng Thạch
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $40,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,031,872
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $42,755
- May 25, 2008
- Gross worldwide
- $7,785,975
- Runtime2 hours 5 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1