In a film that begins in 1899, with titles indicating the impoverishment of the Qing Dynasty and the growing power of the Boxers to expel foreigners from China, Empire of Silver (Baiyin Diguo) describes the banking system, with currency backed by silver, which emerged earlier but was on the verge of collapse when Nationalist Forces took over China. Perhaps unintended, the implication of the film, directed by Christina Yao and based on The Silver Valley, a 2009 book by Cheng Yi, is that the economy was finally stabilized by the Bank of China under the People’s Republic. Although leaders of the banking industry in Shanxi Province (China’s Wall Street), meet at one point in the film, the focus is on the third son (played by Aaron Kwok in the role of Third Master) of Lord Kang (played by Tielin Zhang). As family patriarch, he has carried on a tradition from his forbears, and he wants the family to carry forth the business. The first son, a deaf-mute, is incapable. The second son is too aggressive and dies. The fourth sun goes bonkers when his bride is kidnapped while honeymooning. But the third son, who is the most mentally capable of running the business, is haunted by a love problem in which traditional Chinese values compete with his emotions, so the tension in the film is father-son. During some of the film, the silver is carried to remote provinces to escape capture by hostile elements, and the impact of the Boxer Rebellion, Western intervention, and the Nationalist uprising underscores the fragility of Chinese capitalism. Cinematography and costuming outshine the staid performance. MH