This is the kind of movie that I love to watch. It’s a true story from real people that inspired me to become a GOOD, kind and a useful person. I’m not afraid to cry watching this, nor am I ashamed of it. Last night, I was watching this Korean drama called “Women in the Sun” at KBS WORLD and my roomie was crying like there is no tomorrow. I was like…what THE HELL!!! That soap/melodramas kind of story is not gonna make me weep! I’m not a sensitive person; I rarely cared about anything other than my interests. You can call me selfish or anything but maybe that’s the truth, I don’t know… I don’t understand myself either.
The point is, I rarely (but still sometimes do, i.e. 1 litre of tears) cry watching a movie or drama coz I know it just part of the show; it’s not real. Maybe that’s why I love true stories (I also read and bought non-fiction books only, but I don’t read much), coz its REAL and had happen before. As long as they keep it REAL, I don’t mind a few ‘not-so-real’ scenes to spice up the story.
Okay, back to “Escape from Huang Shi”. This is a true story about a journalist named George Hogg, who’s during Japanese occupation, goes to Nanjing to get a story like any other war journalists during WW2. There, he witnessed the Japanese massacre of the Nanjing people and he snaps a few photos during that event. After he was captured by the Japanese army, and later saved by a nationalist Chinese soldier named Jack (Chow Yun Fat), he was ‘sent’ (by a nurse/doctor, Lee Pearson) to travel to a boy’s orphanage. That’s how his legacy began; he’s been taking care of these children, even though he hate it at first, for …I don’t know how long, but from unhealthy, malnutrition, uneducated, unwanted children, he literally changed them into healthy, educated young boys; even the Chinese nationalist wants them as young soldiers. In order to save them from becoming a child soldiers, he march them all to a new place, for 3 months in the winter to a new ‘heaven’ (Mongolian Desert actually) where they can start all over again but free from wars. As what usually happen to kind-hearted, heaven-like people, he died young, but he leaves a long lasting legacy that still remembered today.
However, the movie itself is not that great, it’s a good movie but not GREAT. The acting is ok, I’m not a fan of Jonathan Rhys Meyers (as George Hogg), coz he walks funny, but he’s improve a lot after ‘Bend it like Beckham’. The girl I-don’t-know her name is, played Lee Pearson (the name Lee is interesting to me as it’s like a Chinese's name), is so-so for me, not much of an impact to me. Her real life character is actually a man, which make this movie not really following the real ‘thing’- a minus there. Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh were okay, good like always even though they were the supporting character. The overall movie is actually good, as the story focus on George and the boys not the war itself. Again like I said earlier, this is a good movie but NOT the GREAT one. I've seen many GREAT, wonderful true stories movies before; trust me this still worth watching.
I’ve also watched D-War or Dragon War (back-2-back, after Escape from Huang Shi), a Korean blockbuster movie featuring Hollywood actors and sets in LA. I don’t get it why it sells big in Korea, but this movie SUCKED!!! I think if they cast Korean actors, speak Korean and shoots in Korea, this probably going to be BIG, I mean much bigger than The Host. But sadly, they use ‘the Hollywood’ thing here and it sucked big time!
So, watch Escape from Huang Shi and forget about D-War.
