Thousand Pieces of Gold

A gorgeous and very intelligent movie. Highly unusual to make a western from the Chinese point of view, also to make one from the woman's point of view.

These people do it without sentimentality; there's never a false note in it. Lalu has three strikes against her: an ethnic Mongol in China, a woman in a male culture, a Chinese in America. Yet she can draw on her warrior traditions forb a sense of pride inaccessible to most of her compatriots.

The relationships she gets into seem totally real; at the same time, there is no attempt to cover up the ugly reality of white racism (not that the Chinese men are much better than the Americans).

This is how the old west must have been, and this movie gives us an honest and dramatic portrayal. It deserves to be much better known.

OK, I will admit upfront that I am biased about this movie. "Thousand Pieces of Gold" had its world premiere in my city in Idaho in 1991 because it was the only sizeable town with a large old movie palace near the locations where these true-life events took place (but NOT where they were filmed, which was in Montana). (Lewiston even gets a shout-out in the subtitles near the beginning of the film.) During the several weeks that this movie played, I went to see it MANY times on the BIG SCREEN; watching it on TV screens just does not do the scenery justice, though we will perhaps never see it again in theaters. The story of Polly Bemis that the movie is based on is real, though the filmmakers do take some liberties with the facts. That does not bother most of us locals. We were all thrilled to see this story brought to life on film by many fine actors, capturing the flavor of what life was like in 19th Century Idaho mining towns--especially if you were not white. Rosalind Chao's performance is exceptional, and I have been told that this was the FIRST American movie made with a Asian-American actress in the lead role. Although the film seems to come to a rather abrupt end -- as though the filmmakers ran out of money -- it is still a fantastic film that deserves more attention than it has received, and certainly should be released on DVD. Make a point to see it, or own it on VHS, if you can.

One of the few movies i've seen where sex is not the bottom line or basis of the romance. It is tasteful and sweet in its depiction of an interracial relationship which develops around an actual friendship and ensues into a genuine emotional bond in the midst of semi-racially intolerant environment. The lead actor and actress produce an amazing performance of a romantic chemistry that is set in the bounds of respect, selfnessness, kindness, and deep affection.

I give it a thumbs up, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay up.

Gritty social realist story of Chinese woman Lalu who is sold into slavery in the late 19th century, and taken to a rough mining town in the American west. There she faces a series of humiliations, rejections and triumphs before finding at least a degree of happiness with a sympathetic saloon keeper. By turns both gloomy and sentimental (not necessarily a bad thing) issues of racism and feminism are very much to the fore.

I came across this movie because it has Chris Cooper in it and was just released on DVD in 2020 in a 4K digital restoration. The picture and sound are superb especially when you consider it was filmed 30+ years ago. It was filmed in Montana.

It is based on real people and their mostly factual story. Drought and famine threaten everyone in Northern China and Mongolia in 1880. To survive the dad sells his daughter, presumably into marriage. She is sent by ship and arrives in California where she is again sold and transported to Oregon where many men went to prospect for gold. Presumably to work as a prostitute for the man who bought her even though by that time slavery had been made illegal.

The young lady was headstrong, she did not comply and eventually worked herself into a better position. The movie is of that story and is very well made.

My wife and I watched it on DVD from our public library.