The Children of Huang Shi is a story about doing what you have to, what needs to be done simply became you are the only one there who can. This film is not about what you are but what you can be when the need arises and you are put to the test.
The Children of Huang Shi begins in China during the Japanese occupation in 1938 with George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a reporter from Great Britain covering the war. Hogg wants to cover what’s really going on during the war, the stories that aren’t being reported on. After he sneaks into a hot zone with his colleague Barns (David Wenham) under the guise of bringing Red Cross medical aid, Hogg sees and hears far more than he bargained for. Hogg witnesses genocide and major war crimes first-hand, an offense that almost gets him killed if not for the intervention of a Chinese rebel leader by the name of Chen Hansheng (Chow Yun Fat).
Wanting to keep Hogg safe, Hansheng brings him to Lee Pearson (Radha Mitchell), an Australian nurse who gives free medical care to the Chinese rebels and the indigent. Pearson, in turn, takes Hogg to an orphanage, an old building where parentless children are staying, watched over by a single old woman. Hogg is to stay there and be their new caretaker. This is the point in The Children of Huang Shi where the main plot emerges. Instead of standing on the sidelines of events and merely reporting on them, Hogg becomes part of them and changes a small segment of humanity for the better. Hogg slowly, over the course of his time with them, becomes what the sixty orphaned children need to survive and thrive. He becomes their teacher, their provider, their father figure, but most importantly, their friend.
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