Noble House

[loogthan]

Thankyou for the advice about “Shogun,” Ace. Normally, my DVD is set to present widescreen DVDs in full screen format i.e. “The Deceivers” in widescreen with its smaller bands on the top & bottom disappear so it looks as though it is full screen. “Noble House” appears to be presented in full screen--it looks about the same size as the images on the VHS tapes.

[Ace]

steeleinc said:

I went to Best Buy yesterday to get it and they didn't have it - said it was available through their web site. So came home and ordered it from Amazon. I'd have pre-ordered it if I'd known I couldn't buy it in person.

Debra

And I was going to pick mine up at best Buy too (instead of dealing with the hassle of the post office). Amazon seems to have underestimated demand as well, they're out of stock and delivery is now promised in 1-3 weeks.

[Xenia]

My copy is finally here! I ordered it at Amazon.ca and came in with a few other items, now I'm off to start watching.

[karen]

Mar 30, 2008 21:44:59 GMT -5 Ace said:

steeleinc said:

I went to Best Buy yesterday to get it and they didn't have it - said it was available through their web site. So came home and ordered it from Amazon. I'd have pre-ordered it if I'd known I couldn't buy it in person.

Debra

And I was going to pick mine up at best Buy too (instead of dealing with the hassle of the post office). Amazon seems to have underestimated demand as well, they're out of stock and delivery is now promised in 1-3 weeks.

I accidentally preorderd two copies (my mind is going ) and just returned one so there's one more copy in Amazon's inventory!

I had never seen Noble House before and couldn't wait to see it. It didn't disappoint. The series did definitely smack of the 80's and Dynasty/Dallas type show to me (the music, intros, cliffhangers, etc.) Interesting to see. And it just goes to show you how far CGI stuff has transformed the realistic nature of movies when you seen something like the appartment building collapse in the mud slide. That was pretty funny, so fake. I guess for the time it was good but interesting to look back at.

[boknows]

Just an FYI, Deep Discount DVD has Noble House for $15.71 and shipping is free.

Belinda

[sephraem]

I've decided to make my first humble posts on this board here, as one of my earliest encounters with Pierce Brosnan was watching Noble House as a child. I too have been looking for the script, along with the theme heard during the title sequence. If anyone has a copy or knows where I can find them, I would be forever indebted to them...provided that its legit and not crap.

[mel71pierce53]

Hong Kong, Noble House Style
By Liam Fitzpatrick
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009
Central district: The high-rise setting for much of Noble House
Woody Wu / Reuters
ENLARGE +
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Facebook Yahoo! Buzz Mixx Permalink Reprints Related In western film and fiction, Hong Kong is a fabulously implausible place of strong-jawed Caucasian protagonists and their sinewy Chinese sidekicks. They are pitted in urgent struggles against bloodless communists or mustachioed triads with a penchant for quoting Confucian maxims. Willowy Eurasian sirens in brocade skirts set honey traps at every turn, and the duplicitous locals care for nothing but share-trading and cognac. Great events — a devastating typhoon, a transfer of sovereignty — provide epoch-shifting denouements to stories of unsurpassed venality.

The ne plus ultra of such depictions is Noble House, the 1988 TV miniseries that is a dumbed-down adaptation of the James Clavell novel of the same name. As a casting choice, Pierce Brosnan could not have been improved upon, playing the taipan, or chairman, of Struan & Co., which is modeled on the real-life conglomerate Jardine Matheson. Deborah Raffin — white of stocking and padded of shoulder — is the love interest and Ben Masters plays a silver-haired corporate raider. A pouting, 21-year-old Tia Carrere gives a splendid performance as a mistress by the name of Venus Poon. (See 10 things to do in Hong Kong.)

Over what purports to be a typical week in the life of Hong Kong, Struan & Co. is almost ruined, a top police officer is unmasked as a communist spy, the main characters are caught up in a fire on a floating restaurant and in a landslide that brings down a luxury apartment building, the stock market crashes and the son of a prominent Struan employee is murdered. All of this takes place in settings of high-'80s kitsch, through which Brosnan strides with not a hair out of place nor a crease in his fastidiously tailored attire. It's terrific.

If you are to do Hong Kong the Noble House way, you must dispense with the fashionable but frivolous side trips that have crept onto the tourist itinerary in the past decade, during which the city has tried to be less of a conscienceless cosmopolis and more of a balanced destination with something for all. Thus there will be no tree-hugging, bird-spotting visits to the Mai Po Marshes, no afternoons in the loft studios of Fo Tan artists and an embargo on sipping ristrettos in Elgin Street bars. Instead, Noble House Hong Kong is all about the old-school icons: go to Victoria Peak, have tea at the Peninsula hotel, get invited to someone's box at the Happy Valley races. Loaf around the lobby of Jardine House, which appears in the series as Struan & Co.'s headquarters. Partake of shark-fin banquets and black-tie suppers of foie gras and lobster. Travel only by limousine, yacht and helicopter. As you conduct this princely progress, adorn your speech — as the characters are all wont to do, even if nobody in Hong Kong ever does — with copious references to "joss" (luck, from the Portuguese deus, or "god"), face (and the importance of), high finance and underworld figures with piratical names (Four-Finger Wu, Smallpox Kin). Brosnan is also liable to utter startling ejaculations that are supposed to be Cantonese. Naturally, nobody understands his blather, but in its imperious cadence and dauntless delivery you can hear the music of Hong Kong's golden age.
MEL X

[Myrtle Groggins]

Deborah Raffin who played Pierce's love interest in Noble House died last week of leukemia. She was 59.

She portrayed a businesswoman in "Noble House" (1988), based on the James Clavell saga of love and intrigue in Hong Kong.

Deborah was the daughter of Trudy Marshall, a contract player at 20th Century Fox in the 1940s, and Philip Raffin, a meat broker and restaurateur, she was born in Los Angeles on March 13, 1953. She graduated from University High School, she attended L.A. Valley College and was in her second year there when she was discovered in an elevator by a talent agent.

Since the 1980s, she was a successful entrepreneur whose company, Dove Books-on-Tape, became a major force in the audio book industry. It began as a hobby in her garage. She sold the company in 1997.


articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/21/local/la-me-deborah-raffin-20121122

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Raffin

[eaz35173]

So sorry to hear this

[rosafermu]

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[Ace]

Very sad and too young. I've watched her work from 40 Carats , The Last Convertible, Noble House and even her Seventh Heaven guest appearances - a lovely actress. I had no idea she started up Dove Audio books were her husband - impressive.

[rosafermu]

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[Myrtle Groggins]

Thanks for the nice pics. I always liked her.

[eaz35173]

I just finished watching Noble House again - what a great miniseries!! You can see elements of PB's Bond persona in how he played Ian Dunross. It was such a great story, too. Just sucked me in! And on a purely shallow note, I loved the way he looked in his 3 piece suits and longer, wavy locks!! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it!

[rosafermu]

He is so handsome !!!!

[juljustik]

Hi! I made wallpaper with Noble House. I hope you like this )))

[Ace]

Very cool! Thanks so much for sharing. ;D

[juljustik]

Thanks so much Ace!

[eaz35173]

Love it!! Thanx!!

[juljustik]

Thanks all of you! I'm glad you liked this :-)