Today’s movie is a historical drama with a scene that
happens today, March 10. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.
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. 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. 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, who 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. Struan has a ball to celebrate
the establishment of Hong Kong. May-may, Struan’s mistress 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 spends 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. The film is better than its reviews, although it does help if you’ve
read the novel this is based on first. 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
Runtime - 2 hours 7 minutes
Released - November 7, 1986
Cast –
Bryan Brown as Dirk Struan
Joan Chen as May-May
John Stanton as Tyler Brock
Kyra Sedgwick as Tess Brock
Tim Guinee as Culum Struan
Russell Wong as Gordon Chen
Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.
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