| Iron Road | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | David Wu |
| Produced by | Anne Tait Barry Pearson Raymond Massey |
| Written by | Barry Pearson Raymond Massey |
| Starring | Sun Li Luke Macfarlane Sam Neill Peter O'Toole Charlotte Sullivan |
| Release date(s) | 2009 |
| Running time | 190 minutes |
| Language | English |
Iron Road is a 2009 Canada/China television miniseries written by Barry Pearson and Raymond Storey and directed by David Wu.[1] Starring Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill, Luke Macfarlane, Charlotte Sullivan and Sun Li, Iron Road chronicles the untold story of Chinese workers who helped to build the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s.[2] The mini-series was filmed in the Kamloops, B.C. area with many local actors.[3]
Iron Road is only the second joint venture to be created under a Canada/China co-production treaty established in the 1960s.[4] The first was 1989's Bethune: The Making of a Hero.[1]
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Iron Road follows the journey of Little Tiger (Sun Li), a child whose quest for her long-lost father takes her from a fireworks factory in China to a remote construction camp in the Rockies. Lured by the myth of 'Gum San' - Gold Mountain - she and her countrymen come to Canada by the thousands to do the back-breaking work of blasting through the mountains to lay track. She soon learns that railroads only bring fortune to the few and that every mile of track is purchased with fear and death. As treachery and prejudice threaten her, Little Tiger must use her wits and courage to fulfill her quest and honour her friends who died in this foreign land.
Little Tiger keeps the truth about her being a female from the main contractor's son, James Nichol. She has a crush on him and is sexually attracted to him. James Nichol thinks of Little Tiger as just "one of the guys" and treats her as a buddy. Nichol strips naked and jumps into a river for a swim and asked Little Tiger to join him. Little Tiger declines profusely, but secretly glances at his naked form when he isn't looking. She later reveals to Nichol that she is a woman and that she really likes him. The two start an affair and the sexual relationship lasts until Little Tiger's father dies trying to save her. The long lost father turns out to be the Chinese railroad construction foreman. The rope holding her when she was working on a cliff placing dynamite, had been deliberately severed. She honours her father's wish to bring his ashes back to China and leaves the railway construction camp. James wants to leave Canada with Little Tiger and spend his life with her, but she declines as they are both from two different worlds which could have "social implications". Interracial or inter ethnic relationships were generally discouraged at that time.