John Jobeless It seems most of the reviewers have concentrated on the historical and philosophical aspects of this movie, but I'd like to focus on it terms of its success as a film. In general, I love a good epic, but this effort simply is no match for such brilliant achievements as David Lean's best -- Dr. Zhivago, Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia. This is a compelling story, whatever the historical inaccuracies may be; also, it's well produced, directed and acted, largely gorgeous to see, generally effective for this kind of big film. What it lacks is the physical and emotional sweep, the irresistible suspension of disbelief, the ability to grab your attention and hold it -- in other words, the extraordinary talents of such as Lean and a few others (John Ford, Henry Hathaway and William Wyler come to mind). Despite all this, I really enjoyed it on many levels and would recommend it to any lover of large-scale films of the Golden Age of Hollywood. I think it would not have suffered a bit had it been filmed in black & white. Nor did I miss the electronic enhancements so common in today's movies.

sddavis63 George Hogg was a British journalist in the 1930's who managed to get into Nanjing during the Japanese occupation of China, and who witnessed examples of Japanese atrocities while he was there. Circumstances led him to an orphanage, where he took it upon himself to keep the 60 or so children in the orphanage safe from the Japanese by eventually leading them on a 1000 kilometre hike to a place of safety on the edge of the Gobi Desert.There are a few scattered scenes of excitement here, revolving mostly around the Japanese. Those scenes are well done, with some especially well portrayed strafing runs by Japanese fighter planes against civilian targets. For the most part, though, this is not an exciting movie. It's a worthy movie. It's a story that deserves to be told. Jonathon Rhys Meyers was quite believable as Hogg, and there's a great depiction of China - all the way from the scenery along the way as the group journeys, to some reflection (probably not enough) on the tensions between the Communists and the Nationalists, who worked out an uneasy alliance with each other to defeat the Japanese during the occupation.The movie seemed to me a bit too long. In particular, after the opening few minutes, when the Japanese atrocity in Nanjing occurs, the next hour or so until the journey begins is quite slow going. Overall, though, this is a good tribute to George Hogg, and I especially liked the very moving reflections offered as the closing credits rolled by some of the orphans (now adults) who shared their memories.

tastyhotdogs Last year wifey won some tickets to see this at the cinema. We never got round to it, but on the weekend it was wifey's choice of movie (being her birthday and all) and she picked this."Children Of The Silk Road" is based upon the remarkable true story of journalist George Hogg (played by the annoying Jonathan Rhys Meyers, in his finest work since "Bend It Like Beckham), a Brit who during the 30's found himself in China looking for untold stories and ended up being the saviour to a heap of young orphan boys.Hogg bravely chose to go to China in the 30's to try to tell the world about the atrocities being committed by the Japanese soldiers on innocent civilians. He gets caught by the Japanese early on into his trip and is about to be murdered when he saved by a small band of Chinese fighters, headed by Chen (Chow Yun-Fat, in his finest work since "Ban wo chuang tian ya"). Chen helps him on his way, where he eventually comes across an orphanage in an abandoned grand building. Here he meets up again with US nurse Lee (played by Radha Mitchell, in her best work since some guest appearances on Aussie sitcom favourite "All Together Now"). She challenges George to stay and help these abandoned boys rather than just run back home like a little nancy boy. George stays and ends up dramatically changing the boys lives. Word soon reaches him though that the Japanese will be coming, so he must take them on a seemingly crazy 700mile journey through the rough Chinese winter to refuge. Will they survive and reach freedom? See it to find out.Not bad and certainly inspiring in pieces. Meyers pulled it off reasonably well considering how unappealing he is to men in general, if not for a few scenes that were uncomfortably awkward. One of the better movies set in China I've seen, perhaps even better than "Rush Hour".

David Ferguson Greetings again from the darkness. It is difficult to imagine a more powerful, emotional story than the real life heroism of George Hogg. He was a British journalist who truly saved the life and dreams of 60 war Chinese war orphans during the 1937 invasion by Japan.The good news is that the story is remarkable, but the downside is how director Roger Spottiswoode ("Tomorrow Never Dies", "Turner and Hooch") is stuck with two miscast leads. Jonathan Rhys Meyers doesn't have the chops to pull off strength of Hogg and much worse is the downright horrible performance of Radha Mitchell as Lee, the war hardened do-gooder. The combination of these two severely weaken the film, but luckily not the story.Chow Yun-Fat and the great Michelle Yeoh play important supporting roles and both are excellent in their English speaking parts. Both are masters at letting simple facial gestures express the bulk of their thoughts. The children in the film are a pleasure to watch, though, we really don't connect with any of them.Some of the landscape is beautifully film and Spottiswoode does a good job of portraying the hardships of the 700 mile Silk Road journey, without it dragging the pace down. Again, the power of this story is unmistakable, but it is certainly not given its due by this rendition. Make sure to stay for the credits as we are treated to first hand memories of some of the surviving children (now very adavanced in age, but extremely lucid).