Children of the Silk Road

Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as real-life hero Charles Hogg in this mix of old-fashioned epic sweep and spiritual courage. Hogg is a naive journalist when he accidentally finds himself in wartorn China's Nanking province, just as the Japanese army is invading during the early days of World War II. He is almost executed but is rescued by a crafty communist guerilla (Chow Yun-Fat) and a lovely, brash nurse (Radha Mitchell). They send Hogg to a burnt-out orphanage to lie low, but as the scruffy orphans begin to charm him, he ends up teaching them English and basketball. Michelle Yeoh is a classy merchant who helps Hogg get the orphanage back on its feet, but then comes trouble when communist insurgents want to conscript the orphans into the local militia. (official distributor synopsis)