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Show The Park Record D Section B Thursday, April 13, 1993 B Page B7 PC Film Society to present 1,000 Pieces The Park City Film Society presents pre-sents the first film scries at the Park City Library and Education Center . Auditorium, 1255 Park Ave., sponsored spon-sored by the Park City Arts Council and the University of Utah Division of Continuing Education. Thousand Pieces of Gold, will be shown on Friday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. Developed, produced and directed by Nancy Kelly, a screen-writing screen-writing fellow at the Sundance Institute, the film shows the Old West through a piece of candle-lit silk, hardship diffused through tears and smoke. It takes an alternative look at frontier life through the eyes of an ultimate outsider who arrives at an Idaho mining town a poor Chinese woman sold into slavery by her father. Rosalind Chao stars as Lalu Nathoy, later known as "China Polly." Thousand Pieces of Gold is one of the many untold stories of the American gold rush, focusing on the unsung but important role that immigrants played in shaping the American frontier. Echoing the pioneer pio-neer spirit that won the West, the film documents the life of a Chinese woman, Lalu Nathoy, and her true story of subjugation and liberation. In an attempt to sustain their family through another bitter winter in the barren north of China, Lalu is sold by her father to a marriage broker. bro-ker. "Serve your master or your husband," hus-band," her father tells her as she is tied to the cart and taken away. Transported across the Pacific in chains, Lalu ends up on an auction block in San Francisco's Barbary Coast, where she is sold to Jim (Dennis Dun), who is acting as an agent for Hong King (Michael Paul Chan), an ambitious saloon keeper in the small mining settlement of Warren's Diggens, Idaho. On the way to the settlement, Lalu and Jim camp out beneath the stars. "The same stars as at home!" she cries in bitter recognition. Together, they retell the Chinese legends leg-ends of the constellations and Jim begins to regret his role in her captivity. 4 ',,.1", (I 6 f VA n- ,V-. 1! ".f 1 1 f i u)'4; The Park City Film Society will present Thousand Pieces of Gold April 14. Lalu is unprepared for the humiliation humil-iation that accompanies her new life in the Pacific Northwest. She is stripped of everything she had: her home, family, freedom and even her name. The white "demons," unable to pronounce Chinese names, took to calling all Chinese women either "Polly" or "Mary."- Thus, Lalu became China Polly. Jim is tormented by his part in delivering Polly to Hong King. He offers to buy her back, but Hong King's price is too high. Jim is determined to earn the money, allowing him to free her and take her home to China as his wife. With her fiery will and graceful manner, Polly slowly winds the respect of the townspeople. Charlie Bemis, a hard-drinking Connecticut Yankee and Hong King's partner in the saloon, is especially taken with her. Eventually he, too, is determined deter-mined to help set her free. Upon learning that slavery is against the law in America, and that she has been illegally enslaved, she refuses to behave like the slave Hong King has become used to, irritating irri-tating him to the point that he decides to auction her off as a prostitute. pros-titute. Charlie intercedes at the last moment, gambling all he owns for Polly's freedom. Charlie wins and Polly, free but penniless, moves into his home. By this time Charlie is totally and hopelessly in love with Polly, but she is only interested in earning enough money to return to China and her family. Jim, having worked himself to the bone, returns with money enough to meet Hong King's price for Polly. He cannot accept that Polly, has been residing with an American "demon" and leaves, shattering shat-tering her dreams of becoming his wife and returning to their homeland. home-land. At this time in America's past. Chinese workers were welcomed as a source of cheap labor, but not as residents. They were forbidden by law to bring their wives and families to America. They were forbidden to buy property. They were invited 1 .? if , : I .2. itinin' r i Rosalind Chao stars as China Polly in Thousand Pieces of Gold. here to work, not to live, and they were expected to return to China when their usefulness had ended. In Warren's Diggens, resentments gave rise to a movement to expel all Chinese people from the camp. A movement, although opposed by many, grew stronger and uglier. Charlie continues to court Polly, who has by now earned enough money to lease a boarding house. He persuades her to let him accompany accom-pany her to the Chinese New Year's celebration. At the height of the festivities, fes-tivities, disgruntled white miners fire shots into the crowd, striking Charlie. As she stays by Charlie's side through his raging fever and eventual eventu-al recovery. Polly realizes that she has fallen in love with him. For a while, they are together and happy. Hatred of the Chinese grows to the point that they are all ordered to leave Warren's Diggens, including Polly and Hong King. Charlie implores Polly to come with him to the banks of the Salmon River where they can build a home and start a new life together. Forced to choose between Charlie and her dream of returning to China and her family, Polly comes to realize the true meaning of home. "The movie is a small but genuine gen-uine triumph. Shot for less than $2 million, it's a superb Western." Los Angeles Times " Tickets are $5 general admission, or $4 for seniors and students, and are available at the door. The box office opens at 7 p.m. On Friday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m., the Film Society will present The Third Man. The most famous collaboration col-laboration between director Carol Reed and screenwriter Graham Greene, The Third Man, released in 1949, has the structure of a good suspense thriller and an atmosphere of baroque, macabre decadence. The plot takes place in post-WWII Vienna, where Joseph Cotten is on a manhunt for Orson Welles, but has been told that Welles' character has been killed in an accident. Trevor Howard plays an Army officer who teaches Cotten some of the uglier facts of life. The zither music is by Anton Karas. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students. A HONDA FOR ALL SEASONS With so many models of power equipment, you can have a Honda for all seasons. j Nothings easief. Now offering mobile repair service. 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