Very average epic about the birth of the Hong Kong colony , being and overerblown and lousily paced retelling . A disjointed mess set in 19th Century when a powerful lord has to escape from Canton due to "Opium War" and to go a coastal location to be founded the city of Hong Kong . The chief trader , Tai Pan: Bryan Brown , dreams of establishing a colony of commerce to be callled Hong Kong and , eventually , he gets it .
This in an inferior, pretentious epic , whose basis for the film is the James Clavell's novel of the same name, regarding some very free historic events about the origin of the Hong Kong colony, including some really ludricous characters . As a Scottish trader : Bryan Brown and his beautiful mistress : Joan Chen are the main roles in this confusing attempt to dramatize the story of Hong Kong's foundation and development into an important trading port . Along the way the principal plot is mingled with loving conflicts , personal vengeances and ambition for possession of Hong Kong port . It packs love stories , violent confrontation , fights , brief nudism and anything else . The film goes wrong due to too many subplots and roles are badly introduced in a short time to do justice to the much better novel ; Tai Pan . This mixed bag plays like a TV miniseries chopped from seven hours to two . Along with main starring : Bryan Brown, Joan Chen , appearing familiar faces as newcomers : Tim Guinee, Janine Turner , Kyra Sedgwick and veteran support cast as Bert Remsen and John Stanton .
Here stands out the moving and spectacular musical score by the great John Barry, as well as colorful cinematography by prestigious cameraman Jack Cardiff . Shot on location in Hong Kong and considred to be the first American production completely filmed in China . The motion picture was regularly directed by Daryl Duke and it failed totally in the world box office , in spite of the big budget financed by Raffaela de Laurentiis , Dino's daughter. Daryl Duke was a craftsman who usually directed episodes of notorious TV series and occassionally made some movies as "I heard the Owl call my name" , " Payday" , "President's plane is missing" , "Silent Partner" and " The Thornbirds", among others . Rating 4.5/10 , a middlingly made movie .
