Caring for kids

The Children of Huangshi is the pick of this weekend's movies. In 1937, George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) finds himself leading a group of 60 orphan Chinese boys on a journey over the mountains to the Mongolian desert to escape the Japanese invasion. Helping Hogg on this heroic rescue are Chen Hansheng (Chow Yun-Fat), the leader of a Chinese partisan group; Lee (Radha Mitchell), an Australian woman who lends medical help; and Madame Wang (Michelle Yeoh), an aristocrat also fleeing for her life.

Another thought provoking film showing in city cinemas is Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking, a film chronicling how a young Chinese-American writer explored one of the darkest episodes of history in 1937. Chang was the author of The Rape of Nanking, an acclaimed history of Japanese brutality against China in the 1930s. She committed suicide in November 2004 at the age of 36. Her book helped prompt Japan to re-examine the dark history of its wartime occupation of China.

Before John Woo's Battle of Red Cliff opens this July, director Daniel Lee brings Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, set in ancient China's Three Kingdoms, hits city screens.

Woo's film revolves around a factual Battle of Red Cliff, a key war that determined the geography of the Three Kingdoms period when China had three separate rulers.

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon is a dramatic chronicle of Chinese history from 184 to 280 AD, during which China split into three kingdoms: the Wei, Shu and the Wu - just as in Woo's film.

Hong Kong action star Sammo Huang, known for US TV series Martial Law, choreographs the action sequences. It stars Maggie Q, Andy Lau and Sammo Hung.

In Love We Trust by mainland director Wang Xiaoshuai gives moviegoers a softer touch. The Silver Bear winner of this year's Berlin Film Festival focuses on a story of love, loyalty, and responsibility among China's new middle class, and tells of how a middle-aged divorced couple, both remarried, try to save their young daughter, who suffers from leukemia, by having another child to act as a bone marrow donor.

Chen Nan

(China Daily 04/05/2008 page6)