Because many parts of this film's dense plot did not connect in my head, I can only describe it in a fragmentary way. There is a young woman and a youngish man. She is "Stepmother" (Hao Lei); he is "Third Master" (Aaron Kwok). They are lovers and live in a palace. The palace is run by a powerful banker, Lord Kang (Tielin Zhang). This banker, who is the father of Third Master, deals with silver and is a member of an association of silver-loving bankers. The father wants grandsons. The father is all about spreading his genes in a direction that's good for the business. But one of his sons, Second Master, broke his head in a riding accident, and the other one only wants to fuck Stepmother. Wars come in and out of this picture. Hordes of poor people (the real China) come in and out of this picture. Jennifer Tilly (the femme fatale in the Wachowski brothers' 1996 neo-noir Bound) comes in and out of this picture.

Yes, the plot is hard to follow, but the movie is a wonderful treat for the eyes. The director, Christina Yao, knows how to bring a good detail to life. Every scene is packed with things that arrest or amaze the eye—the quality of a piece of paper, the patterns on a curtain, the lipstick on a concubine, the ring on a master's finger (it's black and pearly), the scratches on the wooden frame of a carriage. Because the film is set in another world, China at the end of the 19th century, these details are very striking. The Empire of Silver is, in essence, an empire of things.