Today’s movie is a period drama with a scene that happens on
March 10. Watch it tonight and enjoy.
TAI-PAN
On March 10, 1839 at the European
settlement in Canton, Lin, a commissioner from the Chinese imperial court
arrives and summons Dirk Struan, the unofficial leader (tai-pan) of the
Europeans to meet him. Struan’s Chinese mistress, May-may advises against his
going, but he does anyway. Lin says that all opium in the possession of the
Europeans is to be surrendered and burned. [00:32 to 9:58] The Chinese had
refused to accept anything but silver in payment for tea and silk, until the
Europeans discovered they would accept the illegal drug opium. The opium is
surrendered and burned, which leads to a war the British win and use to annex
Hong Kong. Dirk’s son Culum arrives from Europe and he says all their family in
Scotland has died of cholera. Struan’s business rival Tyler Brock tells Struan
he has bought up £1.2 million of Struan’s debt that is immediately due. This
causes everyone else to withhold credit, so he can’t buy goods to export.
Struan learns Mary Sinclair, an acquaintance, is the lover of the Chinese
merchant Jin-qua. He lends Struan a fortune in silver in return for being
Struan’s indispensable agent with the Chinese for ten years. Struan gets the
silver to Hong Kong and pays off Brock. Culum prevents a disastrous bidding war
for the highest point of land on Hong Kong by reserving it for a church. Struan
has a ball to celebrate the establishment of Hong Kong. May-may has a European dress
and wants to go, but Struan pretends to be upset with her, and the fact that
she stoically bears his (apparently unjustified) wrath gives her great ‘face’
among the Chinese. At the ball Culum is attracted to Tess, daughter of Tyler
Brock, in a match secretly supported by her mother, who sees it as a
peacemaking move. May-may gets
pregnant. Tyler Brock proposes Culum and Tess get married in a year, during
which he hopes to exert a controlling influence over Culum. Struan sends Culum
off to Macao, specifically telling him he’s putting the ship’s captain under
his orders. Culum takes Tess along and orders the captain to marry them.
May-may gets malaria, loses the baby and almost dies until Struan moves heaven
and earth, spending huge sums to find a cure. When Brock’s son Gorth confronts
him about the wedding of his sister, Dirk kills him. Struan and Brock fight
without result as a typhoon approaches. Struan and May-may are killed in the
storm and Culum takes over.
An interesting political/personal
drama. Set in the same alternate universe as Noble House (June 8) and Shogun (April 21). Would have been
better as a mini-series, as too much of the detail had to be cut for time
reasons.
Date given in film at 00:42
Director - Daryl Duke Screenplay -
John Briley, James Clavell and Stanley Mann
Runtime - 2 hours 7 minutes Released - November 7, 1986
Starring - Bryan Brown as Dirk Struan , Joan Chen as May-May
, John Stanton as Tyler Brock , Tim
Guinee as Culum Struan , Bill Leadbitter as Gorth Brock , Russell Wong as
Gordon Chen, Katy Behean as Mary Sinclair , Kyra Sedgwick as Tess Brock ,
Janine Turner as Shevaun Tillman , Norman Rodway as Aristotle Quance , John
Bennett as Orlov
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015
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