Thousand Pieces of Gold

I wish this fantastic film were available on DVD. I own the VHS and find it more compelling with each viewing. Rosalind Chao and Chris Cooper ( who later went on to win an Academy Award) give topnotch performances and make me believe in the power of love and redemption. Their slowly building relationship in a hostile world and its low-key but very powerful denouement is a textbook in fine acting.The historical period has been covered before but never from the point of view of a Chinese immigrant woman. Lalu's courage, strength and intelligence as well as her sensuous exotic beauty are inspirational. As Charlie, Cooper gives a fine portrayal of a decent if flawed man who triumphs in the end. A real classic!

By 1990 pundits were dismissing the Western as a moribund genre, but here was more proof to the contrary: a thoughtful, intelligent frontier drama (from the book by Ruthanne Lum McCunn) about a reluctant young Chinese mail-order bride who learns how to overcome both racial and sexual discrimination after being sold into virtual slavery and shipped to a remote Idaho mining camp. The story offers a fresh look at familiar Far Western terrain from a unique and otherwise neglected Far Eastern perspective: through the eyes of Chinese immigrants who, as much as anyone, helped win the West. The heroine's rocky path to independence is softened somewhat by romantic interest from a sympathetic (and racially color blind) saloon owner, but even in love she never loses her dignity or identity. Likewise the film itself maintains its quiet feminist integrity, by successfully navigating the fine line between sensitivity and soap. Beautifully shot in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, with careful attention to authentic period mood and detail.

Although I haven't seen this since it was on TV over fifteen years ago, its memory came and struck me again tonight right out of the blue while I was eating dinner. I was so supremely impressed with this at the time I saw it on PBS that I have no trouble now remembering the title immediately, along with the names Rosalind Chao and Chris Cooper, even after all these years. So, I just had to come here now while I'm thinking of it and register my approval.

If this were available on DVD, I'd buy it today. But it seems to me that what America really needs, entertainment-wise, is an American Playhouse anthology on DVD. If The American Film Theatre can put out a fourteen-volume anthology (in three sets), and if we can get "Fifty Years of Janus Films" in one giant collection, why not American Playhouse?

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.

Poverty and hunger in China in the late 19th century force a family to sell their young daughter. She "Lalu" (Rosalind Chao) is shipped to the USA where she ends up being bought by the landlord of a saloon who intends that she be an additional revenue source for him, and entertainment for his horny customers. She is determined not to become an whore, though, and so now her strength of character is throughly tested until the arrival of well-meaning Chris Cooper's "Bemis" who might just be able to offer her a way out with some dignity. It's a gloriously shot piece of cinema, this - and the love story bubbles along nicely in the latter part once we have established the characterisations. Cooper is adequate, I never found him to be anything more, really - and there is a thought-provoking narrative that shines a light on the habits of certain cultures of using children as little more than bartering chips (especially girls); and of using women as little more than toys as adults. That adds quite considerably to the potency of the theme, and Chao does a good job keeping us focussed on her struggles and defiance. It probably is not a film you will remember for long, but it is well worth a watch as a testimony to tougher times.