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Rating:  -
Noble House is an eight-hour Classic TV Miniseries produced and broadcast in 1988 by NBC. Based on the fantastic and richly detailed novel of the same name by James Clavell, it features a large cast headlined by Pierce Brosnan, who portrays business tycoon Ian Dunross.
This was NBC's second Classic TV Miniseries adaptation of a Clavell novel, the first was 1980s Shogun. Both take place in the same fictional universe, Noble House even featuring connections to Shogun and yet another Clavell novel, Tai-Pan.
For this miniseries, the timeframe of the original novel was changed from the early 1960s to the 1980s.
Other actors include Denholm Elliott, Deborah Raffin, Tia Carrere, John Houseman, Julia Nickson-Soul, and John Rhys-Davies (who also appeared in Shogun.)
Noble House centers around big-business piracy in Hong Kong. The miniseries opens with Brosnan driving through the rain to meet Denholm Elliott, who plays the outgoing "tai-pan" in Hong Kong's oldest and leading trading firm: Struan & Company.
"Tai-pan," a Cantonese expression, means "supreme leader," and at Struan & Company the title has been passed down at least 150 years
Dunross' arch rival and enemy, Quillan Gornt (Rhys-Davles), is tai-pan of the second leading trading company. Not only does Gornt wants to destroy Dunross and take over Noble House, the two men have racing horses that compete against each other as well.
Meanwhile, two American tycoons (Raffin and Ben Masters) have come to Hong Kong to make a financial deal with Dunross.
But in Clavell's Hong Kong there is no such thing as a single deal. Double-dealing and triple-crossing are more the style of the international wheeler-dealers here.
Diverse players here include bankers, government officials, police and a man called "Four Finger Wu" (Khigh Dhiegh), who runs an opium-smuggling syndicate from a junk boat in Aberdeen Harbor and has a mistress one-third his age named Venus Poon (Carrere).
The eight hours practically sizzle, thanks to Bercovici's articulate script (he also wrote the script for the Shogun miniseries).
Viewers a treated to a manipulated run on a bank, selling short on the stock market, the fixing of horse races, a kidnaping, seductions and murders. Running counterpoint are the burning and sinking of a floating restaurant and a catastrophic landslide.
Add to this a couple of juicy love stories, especially the one between Brosnan and Raffin (who brings a light comic element to her role as the tough wheeler-dealer), while everything is done in ravishing cars, speedboats, mansions and casinos.
But, the biggest and brightest star of the show is clearly Hong Kong, which is more like a video game than a city, filled with the exotica and intrigue that you used to find in old movies. Early in the show, a character who's just landed at the airport asks, "What's that smell?" His host answers, "That's the smell of money."
The $16-million-plus production included eight weeks of exteriors shot in Hong Kong and another eight for interiors in the De Laurentiis studio in Wilmington, N.C.
Highly recommended.
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Having spent time in Hong Kong in the late 60's and early 70's, I found this mini-series to be extremely entertaining and accurate in the way the characters are developed. Hong Kong at this time was still British and "business" ruled the daily lives of the British and European company executives as well as the Chinese businessman and worker. One of my favorite movies, it tells the story of the "Noble House" and Ian Dunross. The Noble House is loosely based on the real trading company of Jardine Mathewson, one of the early trading companies that helped found Hong Kong. (who has since moved to Singapore when Hong Kong reverted back to the Chinese). Plot twists and fortunes made and lost plus romance and danger make this well worth watching. Lions Gate can be hit and miss on the print quality and at this price probably not restored...BUT......it will probable be better than my DVD-R copy off a VHS Tape.
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I saw this movie years ago and it was very good long but good.
Had to do with world money & hong cong china.
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This film ranks a full five stars in my book. The storyline about family traditions (and secrets) completely capture you in the first 15 minutes. The desire to BE Tai Pan, keep the secrets (or not), the aura of the Orient in a time now gone and all that implies, the complexity of doing business in that culture, the splash of American money, power, and competition -- all make this a mini-series champion. If that's not enough, add the outstanding cast and filming location.
For at least four years, we have been seeking the DVD version of Nobel House. Our VHS copy is old, fuzzy, and getting discolored. For a change of pace, there is nothing like being transported to the Orient on a designated Sunday and allowing yourself to be enchanted by Pierce Brosnan at his best.
The scenery is beautiful (not New York or L.A.), the dialog is tight, the cast is great, and the story line can't be beat. Why, oh why is it taking so long to get this piece to DVD? When Nobel House finally arrives to its devoted U.S. fans on DVD, maybe we can get the Blu-ray version, or even HD DVD?? Please hurry!!!!
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I got the book and read it in two days (more than 800 pages). Clavell is a master of the art of captivating his readers' attention, intriguing them with suspense, delighting them with superb detail and surprising them with plot twists and wit.
The movie does perfect justice to the book - no corners are cut and the spirit and letter of the book are kept almost religiously. After all, Clavell himself took part in creating the series.
A young and talented Pierce Brosnan plays a quite real Dunross while being supported by a solid cast of experienced heavyweights showing off their superb acting in a romantic yet accurate Hong-Kong of the 60-70s.
I bought the tapes as soon as they were available and have been watching them once a year (so that the tape is 'exercised', yet not worn-out).
I plan to go to a studio and have them transferred to DVD so that I save them from oblivion.
I would kill for a full resolution, remastered DVD version with surround! I can't understand why a lot of trash is being re-released on DVD while creations like Noble House are still ignored.
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