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Tai-Pan

Play trailer Poster for Tai-Pan R Released Nov 7, 1986 2h 7m History Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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14% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 39% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
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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Tai-Pan

Critics Reviews

View All (7) Critics Reviews
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 Full Review 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 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (34) audience reviews
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 Read all reviews
Tai-Pan

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Movie Info

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
Raffaella 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
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