Plot: In 1937, the British reporter George Hogg travels to Shanghai expecting to cover the Japanese invasion of Nanking. However, the British consul does not give a visa to him since the Japanese authorities do not want journalists in the capital. George deals with a Red Cross driver that wants to get married and he assumes his identity to travel to Nanking with two other journalists in his truck. George witness and photographs an execution of dwellers by the Japanese soldiers but he is captured. When the soldier is ready to behead George with a sword, he is saved by the communist Chinese soldier Chen Hansheng, a.k.a. Jack. George is wounded by a shot and Jack brings him to the Red Cross camping where the nurse Lee Pearson heals him. Jack sends George to an orphanage and he becomes responsible for sixty orphans. George improves their lives and every now and then he sees Jack, who has become his friend, and Lee, with whom he has fallen in love. With the Japanese occupation and the civil war between nationalists and communists, George decides to travel of about 800 km to a distant but safe land through the mountains and desert with the orphans.
Alternative Plot: In 1930s China, British journalist George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an American nurse named Lee (Radha Mitchell) and a Chinese partisan leader named Chen (Chow Yun Fat) join together to rescue 60 orphans. Together, they lead the children on an amazing but dangerous journey over snow-covered mountains and harsh desert terrain in search of a safe haven.
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