So I watched the Thousand Pieces of Gold virtual screening and it was pretty good. It reminded me a little bit of the Iron Road miniseries. I liked seeing Rosalind Chao in a lead role, and it's supposedly based on a true story. Actually the film is based on a novel by an author who researched the life of Polly Bemis née Lalu Nathoy. In the movie, Lalu is sold to America to be a bride for saloonkeeper Hong King in a remote mining town. He tries to prostitute her out, too, but she refuses and threatens to kill herself rather than be a whore. Hong King backs down, and she works diligently to earn her freedom while being courted by two different men who want to rescue her. A black man, possibly a former slave, even tells her that slavery is illegal now since the Civil War.
When Lalu discovers the local Chinatown, full of Chinese laborers and a general store/post office, her face lights up with a huge smile to discover a small piece of China where she can feel less alone in a white town. It's incredible. I just wish the Chinese suitor Jim that she fell in love with didn't leave without saying a word to her. He assumed that she was living in sin with Charlie Bemis, and she didn't have a chance to explain that he had just rescued her from Hong King via a poker game. I mean, Jim might still have rejected her and refused to believe they were living together platonically, but at least she should have gotten a chance to speak to him before he abandoned her.
Anyway, there's another period western movie I want to see called First Cow that was released just before the pandemic, but it's not on streaming yet. Maybe they are still holding it for after the theaters reopen.
Netflix has a new miniseries called Hollywood that imagines diversity succeeding in the golden age, but it's getting mixed reviews. I kind of want to see it for Anna May Wong, but her character is barely mentioned in reviews, as if she's not a major character. I'm looking forward to watching the new PBS Asian Americans special.
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