Why the Chinese immigrant story Thousand Pieces of Gold (1991) is a lost Old West classic

Sometimes, through no fault of their own, good films slip through the cracks. They fall out of fashion, are misunderstood by critics or are poorly distributed, and it can take the passage of time – or a miracle – to bring them back into the light. So it is with Nancy Kelly’s 1991 period piece Thousand Pieces of Gold, adapted from Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s 1981 novel and starring Rosalind Chao from The Joy Luck Club. The film is a sincere, authentic-feeling drama based on the incredible true story of...