The Silk Road

The film is set in the year 1026. The place is western China. Li Yuanhao, crown prince of Xi Xia, is gathering an army. What he wants is control of the Silk Road. Students are pressed into the ranks. Zhao Xingde is among them. Xingde comes into the favour of his commander Zhu Wangli. While a fortress is being sacked he finds a woman. She is Tsurpia, a princess of the Uighur. Xingde hides her and the two grow attached. Then Xingde is sent away to study a language. He leaves Tsurpia in Zhu’s care. But when he returns she is engaged to Li. A bitter turn follows. The two men make a pledge to each other. Toshiyuki Nishida and Koichi Sato take the leads in Junya Satō’s Japanese and Chinese coproduction of 1988.