Movie review - "Tai Pan" (1986) *

 Looks gorgeous. Beautiful photography. Never seems real. Misses the point of the book - the battle for Hong Kong to be taken seriously. We never access Struan's dream, or get his love for May May or his rivalry with Brock. Bits from the book are there but they feel like filmed bits rather than something coherent. Bryan Brown is miscast as a Scot - physically he's fine, he's got the intelligence, just is silly with that accent. John Stanton isn't good. Janice Turner is lovely. Kyra Sedgwick is Brock's daughter. Joan Chen is gorgeous but dubbed - why? Promising young faces. The older actors aren't good eg the guy who plays Quance. George MacDonald Fraser's script was a lot better.