| In the Old West-lawmen, drifters, and hired guns converge on a ranch, believing its Chinese owners possess stolen gold. When two drifters hear rumors that a Chinese railroad worker has absconded with stolen gold and now owns a remote ranch in the wilds of Northern California, the desperate men put a plan into motion to steal the "Chinaman's gold" themselves-quickly, before other interested parties close in. SAUL, the younger of the drifters, uses his charm and his skill with horses to get hired on as a ranch hand, while his grizzled mentor BILL lurks in the shadows on the perimeter. To betray his new Chinese boss ZHEN into revealing the treasure's location, Saul tries any trick he can think of, even playing on the sexual tension stirring between him and Zhen's beautiful wife, KUN HUA. But the game has begun too late. One by one, other parties arrive: a group of MERCENARIES representing ruthless bankers, a shady GUNMAN who might or might not be a federal marshal, and the racist local SHERIFF and his DEPUTY - all have motives of their own. Saul finds himself up against far worse men than himself and is forced to shift plans and allegiances in a deadly multi-sided face-off of bluffs, gambles, and betrayals as he struggles to find the gold and come out alive. His chances hinge on Kun Hua, who has motives of her own-but as this austere yet seductive woman's actions lure the household dangerously closer to a bloodbath, Saul is forced to question: Who is she really betraying? It's a pressure cooker and a treasure hunt-though the treasure itself matters less than what its hunters are willing to give up to get it. Saul's story is in some sense a classic western-the building of the wide-open west on a bedrock of guns, blood, and greed. But with its moody shifts from vast fields and forests to the claustrophobic ranch house; the moral ambiguity of its hero in the face of evil; its dark, gritty, and sexual undertones; and its play on alienation and xenophobia, which link it firmly to the frightened America of today, this story has all the strains of noir. Visuals play up the tension and dread by flirting with the nightmarish, the peripheral, and the enigmatic. This is a land of cold and fog, beyond the outer edge of civilized society-a mysterious and lethal world. And ultimately, Saul's struggle is about trying to hold together a code of conduct and watching that idealized code crumble to its very foundations when the reality of a ruthless world steps in. It's about the making of an American icon-both hero and killer. |