Banking and Bad Behavior
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
As expensive looking as any film about money ought to be, the Taiwanese historical melodrama “Empire of Silver” is rather an odd duck. (And not just because yes, that is indeed Jennifer Tilly in a supporting role.) Hovering somewhere between dryly factual base-touching and sails-to-the-wind dynastic extravagance, this weirdly engaging tale of banking and bad behavior makes 19th-century China look uncomfortably like 21st-century America.
Set among the powerful merchants of the Shanxi province, the film immerses itself in the trials of Lord Kang (Zhang Tielin), whose least favorite son, Third Master (Aaron Kwok), has emerged as the only possible heir to the family business. (His three brothers have proven their unworthiness by, variously, being a deaf mute, sustaining a broken neck and having a breakdown after his wife is kidnapped.) But even Third Master is not without handicaps, including an artistic bent and a persistent yen for the gorgeous young woman (Hao Lei) he now calls his stepmother. Those acres of scabbed poor surrounding the family compound are not the only reason he looks tortured.
Juggling grand ethical themes and sufficient personal tragedy — a hanging, a hysterectomy, a dead mistress — to fuel an entire season of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Empire of Silver” bustles with abacuses, computer-generated wolves and the velvet vocals of Enrico Caruso. As political turmoil roils in the background, the director, Christina Yao, pits paper money against silver and cruelty against compassion with beguiling disregard for the scramblings of threatened elites. Silver ingots may be pretty, but they won’t protect you from the pitchforks of the poor.http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/movies/empire-of-silver-review.htmlI Cannot Wait to See this Film!
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