China Rose

Burt allen (george scott) goes to china to try to find his son who dropped out of sight fifteen years before. Rose, an american transplant, is his tourguide. And.. we're off to hong kong. You'll recognize james hong from seinfeld and everything everywhere. Allen's son had been a teacher, and landed in the hospital. But no-one seems to know why he was injured, or where he was buried. They are getting fed lies from everyone they meet. What was his son involved in? What really happened to him? There seems to some connection to the triad gangs, but everyone thought he was a school professor. Good suspense in the search, but the love story side plot is just silly and out of place. Directed by robert day. He had made a bunch of tarzan films in the 1960s.

"China Rose" is a made for TV movie starring George C. Scott. Now considering the location shoot and that Scott was a magnificent actor, I really expected more from this film. It wasn't terrible...but it also really wasn't good.

Burton (Scott) has come to China looking for information about his son's whereabouts. It seems he went to China over a decade before and has not been heard from since. However as he and his guide (Ali McGraw) travel in mainland China, the trail seems to lead back to Hong Kong. There, he keeps getting conflicting stories...that the son is dead as well as that he's alive! What is really going on here?!

With this plot, it was surprising that the film itself was just okay. You'd think organized crime and the rest of the story would have been pretty exciting. Additionally, the Scott-McGraw matchup didn't work for me...especially when, out of the blue, there was romance. Overall, an okay film with a downbeat ending...nothing more.

George C. Scott's character comes to Communist China to look for his long lost son. The US Embassy or Consulate assigns Rose (Ms. McGraw) who is studying in China, to be his guide and interpreter. Together, they set out looking for the son and have a dangerous time it. That sounds pretty banal but the acting is good and the chemistry between Ms. McGraw and Mr. Scott is palpable. And, from what I could tell, I think the locations were actually shot in China, not in a Hollywood lot. And the feeling of being a stranger in a strange land came across quite nicely. Everything considered, a superior movie

She is such a terrible presence(can't call her an actor), no skills or talent at all, and she ruins any film she is in other than some early ones that traded off her Irish good looks when she was a gorgeous young girl. Forced, self-conscious, totally unnatural, no emotional range at all, and so in contrast to the great George C. Scott, she was a total embarrassment. And, her lame attempts to speak Chinese were out-loud laughable. I guess they got a famous name cheap here, as her declining looks were very evident. One upside.....her looks are fast getting closer to her "talent" and one day they will be the same, if she ever works again after this.

The film story was about a rich American industrialist seeking his long lost idealistic son in China, and the confusing, conflicting and "inscrutable" things he went through to finally see what happened to him. McGraw was his paid, Chinese-speaking, American guide at first but lo and behold, this is Hollywood mind you, she became something else entirely by film's end, no matter how unlikely it all was.

A mediocre film at best, as Scott could walk by and you would still know he is one of the greats, but McGraw ruined it for being anything more than a 2 hour diversion.

I thought "Any movie with George C. Scott has to have something on the ball...!" I was wrong.

This is the only movie that has moved me enough to want to write a review for IMDb.

There's not a single good performance in the movie. Scott's is best, clocking in at "not too bad" which is a gross disappointment for an actor of his caliber. Ali MacGraw is painful to watch. It goes downhill from there, one awkward scene with stilted dialog after another.

Where was the director? Busy having lunch during the whole shooting?

About the only positive reaction I have is the photography, giving a nice flavor of mainland China and Hong Kong.

I am so glad I didn't actually pay money to watch this.