Thousand Pieces Of Gold (1990) - Thousand Pieces Of Gold (1990) - DVD

Set in a mining town in the 1880s,Thousand Pieces of Goldis based on the classic novel by Ruthanne Lum McCunn with a screenplay by award-winning filmmaker Anne Makepeace (Tribal Justice). Upon it's release in 1990, the film won immediate acclaim for it's portrayal of the real-life story of Lalu (Rosalind Chao), a young Chinese woman whose desperately poor parents sell her into slavery. She is trafficked to a nefarious saloonkeeper in Idaho's gold country. Eventually Charlie (Chris Cooper), a man of different ilk, wins her in a poker game and slowly gains her trust.