After reading the book I was extremely disappointed by this poor attempt. I had the 'bad joss' of actually buying the dvd after reading the book. If you hadn't read the book the film would be truly incomprehensible, and if you read the book you would feel a tremendous void. As many other reviewers have said, Taipan needs to be reincarnated as a mini-series of some sort to afford it proper treatment.
Tai Pan/Noble House
Tai Pan is more than a chick flick or criticzing of Bryan Brown. It is a prelude to a very good mini series: Noble house! If you haven't seen Noble House you have missed an excellent journey thru banking & financing in the power people. P. Brosnan is the supreme smooth talker. Lots of intrigue & dirty tricks. If you haven't seen this one order it from Amazon!!
DANGER......DANGER Tai Pan fans
If you haven't read the book don't even think about watching this movie. If you have read the book be prepared to be disappointed.
Bryan Brown was terrible as Dirk Straun (and I don't mean just the accent), can anyone who read the book picture Kyra Sedgwick as "Hag" Straun (not even close), Janine Turner is wasted as Shevaun (did she say three sentences in the whole movie?), and Captain Orlov is straight out of comic book central casting, just to name a few atrocities!
The telling of the story is incomprehensible, the viewer never picking up -- let alone understanding -- the interplay between the characters or the motivation behind their actions (not even close). As with other Clavell novels, there is just too much going on behind the scenes to capture it all in a 120 minute movie. I would love to see the story told as Tolkien's Lord of Rings trilogy was told, three - three hour movies. Maybe someone can tempt Peter Jackson into tackling this as one of his major undertakings. One can hope!
High on the list of best POW movies, King Rat bears some comparison to that compound over by the River Kwai... but this is an entirely more cynical exercise. In a Japanese prison camp, a brash American corporal (George Segal) runs a variety of money-making operations, much to the amazement of a young British officer (James Fox). Director Bryan Forbes, who adapted James Clavell's novel, follows different POWs through various strands of plot, each episode seemingly designed to highlight the dog-eat-dog nature of men held in close confinement. (In one pointedly black-comic sequence, it becomes man-eat-dog.) This was one of Segal's breakthrough roles, and his modern style fits the movie's anti-heroic, '60s approach. It was Oscar®-nominated for art direction and cinematography,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): George Segal - Tom Courtenay Director(s): Bryan Forbes DVD Release Date: Released the 06 May 2003 Usually ships within 10 to 12 days
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What better way to escape from the onslaught of so-called reality television than to sail away with Richard Chamberlain to "the Japans" for a little samurai action and some discreet "pillowing"? From the golden age of the miniseries comes this television benchmark, the 10-hour, Golden Globe-winning saga based on James Clavell's bestselling epic. In his award-winning performance, Chamberlain stars as John Blackthorne, the 17th-century English navigator on a Dutch trading ship. A storm runs the ship aground off the coast of Japan, a "torn and cruelly divided country" locked in a power struggle between Toranaga (the venerable Toshiro Mifune) and Ishido, two warlords who would be Shogun. Blackthorne gets over his initial culture shock ("I piss on you and your country," he defiantly proclaims... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jerry London DVD Release Date: Released the 23 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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