The Children of Huang Shi (Chinese: 黄石的孩子; working title: The Bitter Sea, also known as Escape from Huang Shi and Children of the Silk Road) is a 2008 historical war drama film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh and David Wenham.

The film centers on the true story of George Hogg and the sixty orphans that he led across China in an effort to save them from conscription during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

With nowhere to go for now, Hansheng tells Hogg, on Lee's suggestion, to rest at an orphanage housing 56 young boys and only an aged grandmother to take care of them.

Hogg makes a trip to town with one of the boys to seek a well-known and wealthy lady, Mrs. Wang (Michelle Yeoh), with a business deal in mind.

He starts to plow the land beside the orphanage and with the help of one of the orphans, successfully grows a flourishing vegetable garden along with beautiful and tall stalks of sunflowers.

Fleeing from the Nationalists who want to conscript the boys into their army to fight the Japanese, they make a three-month journey across the snow-bound Liu Pan Shan mountains to safety on the edge of the Mongolian desert, the first 900 km on foot.

The film features the Rape of Nanjing[2] and the Japanese "kill all, burn all, loot all" practices,[3] and ends with a few brief interview snippets with some of the surviving orphans.

The website's consensus reads: "This beautifully photographed but dramatically flat war drama recounts an important chapter in history with little cinematic freshness.

[5] The New York Times gave the film an overall positive review, praising the acting and its "realistic depiction of war-ravaged China".

Conversion of the nurse played by Radha Mitchell from a New Zealander (Kathleen Hall, associated with Alley) to an American also received negative attention.