Empire of Silver

Director Christina Yao's handsome story about a 19th-century banking family's self-interest during China's Boxer Rebellion, ensuing years of war, and the disintegration of the Qing Dynasty, tells a multi-generational epic tale. Empire of Silver's ambivalent hero, Third Master (Aaron Kwok), although dissolute and disengaged from his father's business—consisting of several branches of a bank with huge assets, and a fortune in hidden silver—is pulled in like The Godfather's Michael Corleone when none of his brothers can take the reins. Third Master's resistance is understandable: his father, Lord Kang (Tie Lin Zhang)—obsessed with churning out potential heirs—has married the beautiful, educated woman (Lei Hao) who was his son's lover during days of youthful, wide-eyed innocence. While the lingering, anguished romance between the sundered couple is more soapy than Shakespearean, it still provides good fodder for Yao's most obvious strength as a director: emotional immediacy. The true secret weapon here, however, is Zhang, whose complicated patriarch ultimately proves sympathetic and moving despite his boorish machinations. Recommended. [Note: this review was originally published in our July/August 2012 issue, but the release was delayed until April 16, 2013.] b (T. Keogh)