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Rating:  -
I was born and raised in Hong Kong until I was 16 years old. I didn't read the book by James Clavell but the mini-series certainly brought back nostalgia from my formative years. The distinction rating given to this series is based on the accurate and uncompromising portray of Hong Kong during the last few years prior to 1997 -- the repatriation to China from being a British colony. There is a write-up on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_House that detailed the story behind Noble House. It is based on Jardine Matheson who founded the Jardine Matheson Trading Company which conducted trades between India, China, and the U.K.. As an amateur history enthusiast, I really appreciate how Clavell captures the sentiment of the natives as well as the foreign counterparts greed to financial gains under those convoluted political systems.
To most people who grew up in the West, Noble House gives you a realistic snapshot of the history of Hong Kong during the 1980s. The entire production was shot in Hong Kong, Macau (Macao), and part of China. My only regret is that the producer did not spend the time to teach the actors the proper Chinese dialect (Cantonese) which resulted in utter nonsense to those who spoke the language. This particular lack of details has always been overlooked in most American film productions in which I deem very disrespectful. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this mini-saga to those who would enjoy an intriguing suspenseful drama situated in the Orient in the late 20th century.
Thank you.
Rating: -
i agree with ALL the reviews. i am doing a pre-sale for nonble house because I HAVE TO HAVE IT! i purchased from an amazon 3rd-party the vhs of noble house. it went from lp to slp to fit pn a 160 vhs with 2 minutes to spare. i also saw the original mini-series and fell madly in love. i am giving this dvd a 5* because, sight unseen, this dvd has to be better than the 2 speed vhs. i hope lions gate did a good job!
Rating: -
James Clavell was a WONDERFUL Writer (yes, with a capital W) and NOBLE HOUSE was a gift he left to us!
Through his eyes we visit Hong Kong in the 1970's. Clavell, a virtuoso connoisseur of the human condition, manages to interweave a multitude of stories into a continuous carpet of a city living fast, taking risks, winning and loosing but never giving up.
Heads of huge conglomerates on the verge of foundering - yet never letting go of their rival's throat; dirt-poor Chinese maids striking it rich by a sudden turn of their joss; photographer-Wo and his trophy collection; drug-running smugglers asking for favors-you-can't-refuse; cold war spy networks riddled with double and triple agents; an American stock-market runner trying his hand in raiding Hong Kong companies; ladies getting "pillowed", men getting wooed, fortunes made and lost in the 10 days these all take place. Will the Noble House survive?
To quote Balzac, behind every great fortune lies crime. To prove him right, Noble House is but a thinly veiled reference to Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd, a real company. Anticlimactically for an historic British company operating in China, it is nowadays incorporated in Bermuda - and trying to forget its opium-running past (like so many City of London companies respectable today yet founded on drugs, dead cockneys and destroyed natives).
All these stories were presented masterfully in the original novel, without ever loosing the reader's interest or dropping the ball of building tension. There were less than a dozen writers who could do this - starting with Homer. My copy was so worn I had to replace it.
Now, this is a 1988 TV mini series based on the book - of comparable merit. Until recently, the mini-series were available only on VHS. The major casting was excellent (having suave Pierce Brosnan and beastly John Rhys-Davies go head-to-head was a stroke of genius). The rest of the cast was a mix of hit-or-miss: a really young Tia Carrere as mealy-mouth Venus Poon was a hit; Julia Nickson-Soul as the Eurasian beauty Orlanda Ramos a miss. All in all, a truly beautiful production, yet, although it run for 6 hours total, it barely painted a broad-stroke picture of the complex story-lines.
Thus, in order to fully appreciate this masterpiece, my advice is to first read the book and only THEN watch the TV mini series.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Rating: -
I first saw this on VHS Video Tape in 1989-1990.
Absolutely first class production values, brilliant setting, fantastic lead cast - while Pierce Brosnan is as debonair as ever as Ian Dun Ross ( even if he is rather ruthless in this particular manifestation), John Rhys Davies is the perfect foil as the slightly crude Quillan Gornt!
As usual - fast paced business, jet setting action, classy and glamorous. The colonial backdrop,first class plot, exotic locales, great photoplay etc contribute along with the typical trappings of the International Business Tycoon, to make this an extremely watchable and enjoyable Series.
Indeed, while "Remington Steele" may have set the stage to catapult Pierce Brosnan into becoming James Bond, his cold, clinical character portrayal of Ian Dun Ross in Noble House, cemented it (in my opinion.)
Absolutely watch-able - Eminently collect-able and highly desirable as an addition to one's home DVD collection, which is why I ve just PRE-ORDERED it via Amazon! I cant wait to watch it again!!
Cheerio
Shankar Balan
Bangalore, India.
Rating: -
Having all of Clavell's books, I revel in the movies made from his writings. He earlier brought SHOGUN to the screen, and for 4 nights in February, 1988, he aired the last show he produced. Starting on Sunday February 21st through Wednesday, February 24th, NOBLE HOUSE fought for ratings against the 1988 Winter Olympics taking place on another TV channel. For true fans of the late Clavell we miss new books coming off the presses. I lived in Japan for 25 months so SHOGUN has to be my favorite, with NOBLE HOUSE and TAI-PAN only an eyelash close seconds.
Starting with TAI-PAN in 1841 this epic of the trading house Dirk Struan founded is brought up to date, 1963. The entire action of the 1200+ novel takes place in little more than one week. As in TAI-PAN the struggle between the two trading houses of Struan and Brock continues.
The script of NOBLE HOUSE is well written, with the action moving swiftly along. The mix of characters provides a veteran group, and since a deal for Pierce Brosnan to star in a James Bond movie had fallen through, he was available for one of his last TV appearances. He stated at the time of filming of NOBLE HOUSE that he was going to move away from both stage and TV, wanting to make movies. He and John Rhys-Davies had worked together previously. With relaxed conditions on the sets, all went well with this production.
The TV movie has,however, come under some complaint from both viewers and critics alike, but for me the movies made from James Clavell's books are lasting gifts given us from the author. The reviewer from TV Guide at the time, Don Merrill, "kicked the stuffings out of this miniseries" saying NOBLE HOUSE "furnished with just about everything a melodrama could possibly contain-except characters that come to life". Obviously he was no fan of Clavell's writings and possibly he had not read TAI-PAN. It is quite possible to watch this movie without having read either of the two books, but what a knowledge gained from these two books will provide is not only an understanding of this long standing feud to the death between these two houses but also some understanding of just what drives the personalites themselves, persons always concerned with their families' tradition going back into the mid 1840's, love as well as hate. It's not so much money or greed driving these folks, but just plain cold hatred. They want to destroy each other.
In the second night's drama the fire aboard the floating restaurant happens, and even Don Merrill of TV Guide termed that "a dilly of a fire'. So too the horse race, and many other activities of this movie as well.
What a great mini-series. Long live NOBLE HOUSE and TAI-PAN.
Semper Fi.
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