I decided to do my film critique, lessons and Asian website all on the Silk Road since this is one of my 6th grade units and because I learned, for the first time, about the Mogao Caves when Sonya Lee spoke to us during our Asian Art & Literature seminar. I had to order the film The Silk Road and was beginning to think it would never come so I could write this, but it finally did! I am excited about the prospects of showing this film, or at least portions of it, to my students as we study the Silk Road together next spring.
[font=Georgia, serif]The Silk Road[/font][font=Georgia, serif] ([/font][font='MS Gothic']敦煌[/font] Tonkō?) aka Dun-Huang is a 1988[font=Georgia, serif] [/font]Japanese[font=Georgia, serif] film directed by [/font]Junya Satō. The film was [font=Georgia, serif]adapted from the 1959 novel Tun-Huang by [/font]Yasushi Inoue[font=Georgia, serif] with the backdrop of the plotline being the [/font]Mogao Caves[font=Georgia, serif] with their manuscript trove. It was chosen as Best Film at the [/font]Japan Academy Prize ceremony
[font=Georgia, serif]This Chinese-Japanese co-production has an eye toward educating as well as entertaining, which makes it very enticing to us teachers. The story is framed with historical narration explaining that "The Silk Road" takes its title from the name of the ancient trading route later followed by Marco Polo. The action is set in the general area of Dun Huang,[/font][font=Georgia, serif] in 11th century China. It uses a fictional story to explain one of the world's archaeological mysteries: the Thousand Buddha Caves near Dun-Huang in northwestern China, located close to this ancient trade route known as the “Silk Road.” From Professor Lee we found out that these man made caverns were covered by desert sands for centuries until finally discovered in 1900, yielding a treasure of ancient Chinese books, scrolls, drawings, paintings, and sutras (writings on Buddha). [/font] Dun-Huang was the desert city that was the last Chinese outpost on the route. The film shows amazing scenes of the desert and the cave area.
The film imagines events that might have created what came to be known as these Thousand Buddha Caves. The events are seen through the eyes of Zhao Xingde , a young scholar. His adventures begin when he joins a caravan of traders that is soon attacked by a band of Chinese mercenaries whose general (Toshiyuki Nishida) recognizes his intelligence and makes him a kind of military protégé. The film becomes a very far-fetched love story when Zhao rescues Tsurpia, a princess from an enemy tribe, and tries to hide her from battle. These lovers attempt to flee but are forcibly separated. In the film’s ending portion, Li's forces attack and destroy Dun Huang, while Zhao arranges for the safe removal of the treasures that will be discovered nearly 900 years later.
[font=Georgia, serif]The scenes of the Silk Road, the harsh surroundings, and the caves are tremendous, as is the beautiful music score.[/font] Rated PG-13, the film does include a mild sex scene and is quite violent, but not terribly gory. It is in Japanese with English subtitles. Although it is not a Lawrence of Arabia, the film did win 13 major awards in Japan, The History is better than the love story in my opinion. One of the things I liked most about the film was the music also called ‘The Silk Road’ which won best score. I do plan on using The Silk Road while teaching ancient China and the Silk Road next spring. Below are two links for the Youtube Japanese film with no English subtitles. The scenery and music are still amazing though.


Saul Bass title sequence - Tonkô / Dun Huang / Silk Road (1988)
《敦煌》Dun.Huang （1988）CD2 日本语