The average American moviegoer has a very limited exposure to Chinese cinema which often consists of the visually splendorous stunts like those found in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or the sweeping opera of color like that of Hero. If they have any exposure beyond that it probably involves Jet Li or Jackie Chan, and again it’s typically a film centered around astounding fight choreography and stunt work. Empire of Silver (Baiyin Diguo) will require a bit of branching out for American audiences, but the experience will prove mixed as it’s a film of beauty derived from slow and calculated moments of ancient Chinese life but with heavy handed melodrama where American audiences expect grandiose action to be.
Lord Kang, essentially the controller of China’s fledgling economy due to his ability to move silver from one place to another, has a strong lineage with four potential heirs (the Masters); four brothers with distinct personalities and ambitions, three of whom have taken themselves out of the running as inheritors of the family business. The Third Master, the sole remaining candidate, is also the father’s least favorite choice thanks to a romantic entanglement: Lord Kang married his love. Now, his lover is his step-mother, and all is not right in the house of Kang. As if mirroring the tumultuous times within the family, China’s Boxer Rebellion is at hand and consequently tensions are running high between the common folk, officials, and foreign interests. In the latter vein, Lord Kang’s wife has taken on an American missionary (Jennifer Tilly) as her primary confidante. Despite being the father’s last hope for a suitable substitute to run the business, the Third Master embarks on a cross-country journey, where he faces down a pack of CGI wolves, broken up by flashbacks to the blossoming of his romance with the love his father stole from him.
Even with subtitles cushioning the blow, the overacting of all parties involved rings overwhelmingly false and unnecessary. There’s enough wringing-of-garments to push the film’s credibility over the edge within the first half, and the incentive to keep going is almost null. While the Chinese cast is busy going a few degrees too far in melodrama, Tilly lounges about in a film she has no business being in. She can be exceptional when cast in the right roles, but here her very presence is off-putting and distracting, especially as she serves as the primary representation of foreign presence which forms a third of the Boxer Rebellion’s triangle. She can’t carry the weight all on her own, and consequently she’s overpowered by plotpoints involving the beaten down citizens and the political maneuvering of those in power. If she’s supposed to be carrying religious overtones on top of all this, it never manages to come across.
Where the actors fail the cinematography and staging rise to the challenge and give the film a few redeeming qualities. As period pieces go, Empire of Silver achieves its time period with beautiful panache, working carefully and meticulously in creating its locations to irreproachable detail. Outside of man-made dwellings, the film finds comparable success with its wide shots of open desert and fields of destitute workers. There are some memorable shots to be seen within the film and you’d almost be served best by paying less attention to the English translation at the bottom and soaking in the contents of each frame.
Trading long periods of still beauty for the kinetic gravity-defying fights Americans are used to seeing in Chinese films may prove to be a deal breaker for some, and the poor performances in Empire of Silver won’t help. Those with the patience to sit back and indulge in the impressive recreation of the majesty of China from another era will find the viewing rewarding, but if you absolutely need cohesive plot and well-constructed tension, you need to look elsewhere. This isn’t the piece of Chinese cinema that will ween Americans off of foreign action extravaganzas, and if entered into with the wrong expectations it could be a large turn off for future exposure to the genre.
"Empire of Silver" opens June 3, 2011 and is not rated. Adventure, Drama. Directed by Christina Yao. Written by Cheng Yi (book), Christina Yao (screenplay). Starring Aaron Kwok, Jennifer Tilly, Lantian Chang, Lei Hao, Zhong Lu, Tielin Zhang.
