Tai-Pan

R

Released Nov 7, 1986

2h 7m

History

Drama

List

14%

7 Reviews

Tomatometer

39%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

It's 1842 and a battle is raging between imperialist England and the port city of Hong Kong. British merchants regularly buy opium from Chinese merchants and sell it back to them at higher prices, which enrages the locals. The powerful British forces quickly quell a Chinese uprising and take over the city, inspiring the ambitious Dirk Struan (Bryan Brown) to become its leader. Dirk finds himself pitted opposite the unscrupulous Tyler Brock (John Stanton) in his quest to rule Hong Kong.

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Audience Member

The funniest movie from the UK-Hong Kong directors!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Pretty good. This movie by Duke Daryl is based on an epic novel by James Clavell. The main issue I have with the movie is its duration. James' novel has a plot that stretches over months, with characters worth pages and pages of social backgrounds. Had the movie retained everything from the book, it would have been 5 hours long. Unfortunately, the action was therefore squeezed and it's hard to follow what's going on if you haven't read the book before. Aside this, the costumes are great, the music adequately supports the action and the actors performed nicely. Quance's character is perfection. All in all, this movie has its flaws but is still enjoyable. 4 stars. 4.5 if the movie hadn't omitted the 4 broken pieces that sealed Jin-qua's deal.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Tai-Pan (1986) Although I'm a big fan of James Clavell's Shogun, I thought that his book Tai-Pan was far superior. His book about the early China trade, starting with the Opium Wars and then the taking of the island of Hong Kong by the British was wonderful. This brought a continuation of his characters on the rest of his series of books about Asia. The movie, Tai-Pan was perfect timing for the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group with the up-coming transfer of Hong Kong sovereignty back to mainland China in 1997. Unfortunately the transfer of this story to film, just didn't work as well. I still think that it covered the book okayl and it's well worth a viewing especially if your a James Clavell fan. Although Roger Ebert called this movie "The Battle of the Breasts", it does have some of the most beautiful and sexy women of the 80s; Joan Chen, Kyra Sedgwick, Janine Turner, Katy Behean, and scores of unknown cuties. Dirk Struan (Brian Brown) is a Scottish leader of a fleet of sailing ships in the lucrative trading with China. He deals with pirates, corrupt officials, and competing, villainous merchants. He has to deal with high finance and political intrigue to stay afloat and alive.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

good version of this

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Frances H

Pretty bad. Should have paid heed to both sets of ratings here. Bryan Brown's "Scottish" accent was laughable, as well as the terrible dialogue poor Joan Chen had to mouth. Even Maurice Jarre's music left a lot to be desired. It was like it was trying to be like Hawaii and just didn't know how. Piss poor.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

08/10/14

Full Review

Audience Member

Love and honour against the backdrop of British Empire building and entrepreneurial traders in 19th century China. It's a fair story of imperialist aspirations although the general themes are common enough and ordinarily dealt with by the director.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

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Daryl Duke

Director

Bryan Brown

Dirk Struan

Joan Chen

May-May

John Stanton

Tyler Brock

Tim Guinee

Culum Struan

Bill Leadbitter

Gorth Brock

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Walter Goodman

New York Times

The director, Daryl Duke, shows an infallible talent for accentuating the obvious.

May 21, 2003

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The embodiment of those old movie posters where the title is hewn from solid rock and tiny figures scale it with cannons strapped to their backs, while the bosoms of their women heave in the foreground.

Rated: 1/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Paul Attanasio

Washington Post

Based on the bestselling novel by James Clavell, "Tai-Pan" is a TV mini-series made into a minier movie

Jan 1, 2000

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Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

Rated: 2/5

Oct 9, 2005

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 3/5

Aug 26, 2005

Full Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality & Practice

Although the film as the first American feature to be shot in the People's Republic of China, there is little visual evidence for this accomplishment.

Rated: 1/5

Aug 25, 2004

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Synopsis

It's 1842 and a battle is raging between imperialist England and the port city of Hong Kong. British merchants regularly buy opium from Chinese merchants and sell it back to them at higher prices, which enrages the locals. The powerful British forces quickly quell a Chinese uprising and take over the city, inspiring the ambitious Dirk Struan (Bryan Brown) to become its leader. Dirk finds himself pitted opposite the unscrupulous Tyler Brock (John Stanton) in his quest to rule Hong Kong.

Director: Daryl Duke
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis
Screenwriter: John Briley, Stanley Mann
Distributor: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Production Co: De Laurentiis
Rating: R
Genre: History, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 7, 1986, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.8M
Runtime: 2h 7m
Sound Mix: Surround