Main Cast: Bryan Brown, Joan Chen, John Stanton, Tim Guinee, Bill Leadbitter
Release Year: 1986
Country: US
Run Time: 130 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Daryl Duke directed this epic adventure, based on James Clavell's best-selling novel, concerning the battle for control of the China trade in early 19th-century Hong Kong. The film takes place in 1842 on the China Coast, where the Chinese object to the British imperialist policy of buying opium from the Chinese and then selling it back to them at a higher price. As a result, British warships arrive to pound the recalcitrant Chinese into submission. The outcome of the assault is a treaty giving England the right to operate Hong Kong as a free-port. The problem is who will become the Tai-Pan, or British merchant ruler of Hong Kong? The battle lines for the position are drawn between two swashbucklers -- Dirk Struan (Bryan Brown), a skipping and jumping buccaneer, and Tyler Brock (John Stanton), a weaselly cheat. Brock makes the first move by forcing Straun into bankruptcy, but, thanks to the help of the local prostitute May-May (Joan Chen), who has a score to settle with Brock, Straun is able to raise the money at the last minute. This enrages Brock, who remains bitter through the years and finally confronts Straun in a climactic sword fight. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Russell Wong - Gordon Chen; Kyra Sedgwick - Tess Brock; Janine Turner - Shevaun Tillman; John Bennett - Orlov; Derrick Branche - Vargas; Katy Behean - Mary Sinclair; Rosemarie Dunham - Mrs. Fotheringill; Robert Easton - Zergeyev; Richard Foo - Lin Din; Nicholas Gecks - Horatio; Tim Guince - Culum; Michael Gwynne - Cooper; Barbara Keogh - Mrs. Quance; Chen Kuan-Tai - Wung; Lisa Lu - Ah Gip; Bert Remsen - Tillman; Norman Rodway - Aristotle Quance; Patrick Ryecart - Capt. Glessing; Patty Toy - Poxed Whore; Vic Armstrong - Drunken Sailor; Jovita Adrineda - Servant Girl; Bob Appleby - British Merchant; Dickey Beer - Brock's Crew; Chan Lub Bun - Elderly Chinese Woman; Carol Gillies - Mrs. Brock; Pat Gorman - British Merchant; Billy Horrigan - Brock's Crew; Denise Kellogg - Nude Model; Kwang Pan - Kwang Kuo; Joycelyne Lew - Beaten Whore; Bronco McLoughlin - Brock's Crew; Leslie Peterkin - Piper; Ian Sheridan - British Merchant; Chen Shu - Chen Sheng; Siu Kam - Executioner; Rob Spendlove - Nagrek; Job Stewart - Dr. Gonzalez; Mac Wheater - British Merchant; Charles Woods - British Merchant; Zhang Jie - Liln; Chuang Cheng - Jin Qua
Credit
Pier Luigi Basile - Art Director, Benjamin Fernandez - Art Director, John Bloomfield - Costume Designer, Edward Percival - Costume Designer, Daryl Duke - Director, Antony Gibbs - Editor, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Maurice Jarre - Musical Direction/Supervision, Giannetto De Rossi - Makeup, Tony Masters - Production Designer, Jack Cardiff - Cinematographer, Raffaella de Laurentiis - Producer, Giorgio Desideri - Set Designer, Kit West - Special Effects, Vic Armstrong - Stunts, John Briley - Screenwriter, Stanley Mann - Screenwriter, Larry Yust - Screenwriter, James Clavell - Book Author
Tai-Pan is a 1986 film directed by Daryl Duke, loosely based on James Clavell's 1966 novel of the same name. While many of the same characters and settings appear, Clavell's masterful epic story was muddled and drowned in this Dino De Laurentiis cinematic version. Filmed under communist Chinese censorship, much of Clavell's story was considered too offensive to be filmed as written and considerable changes were made. The De Laurentiis Entertainment Group handled the production and were actively seen battling the Chinese Government and Labor boards over the film during shooting. It was this sort of government intervention that the character of Dirk Struan was so ardently against. The results fared poorly at the box office and in critical reviews. Director Daryl Duke believed that a mini-series à la Shōgun would have been a far superior means of covering the complexity of Clavell's novel.
The film begins following the British victory of the first Opium War and the seizure of Hong Kong. Although the island is largely uninhabited and the terrain unfriendly, it has a large port that both the British government and various trading companies believe will be useful for the import of merchandise to be traded on mainland China, a highly lucrative market.
Although the film features many characters, it is arguably Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock, former shipmates and the owners of two massive (fictional) trading companies who are the main focal points of the story. Their rocky and often abusive relationship as seamen initiated an intense amount of competitive tension. Throughout, both men seek to destroy each other in matters of business and personal affairs. Struan is referred to as Tai-Pan (which author Clavell translates as "Supreme Leader," although this is not the accepted translation of the term) indicating his position as head of the largest and most profitable of all the trading companies operating in Asia. Brock, owner of the second largest of the trading companies, constantly vies to destroy Struan's company and reputation in an attempt to both exact revenge on Struan and become the new "Tai-Pan" of Chinese trade.
