The film: Students of the James Clavell school of Hong Kong studies will already be familiar with the goings on in the TV mini-series Noble House through that writer's sprawling novel of the same name and his earlier Tai-Pan. But while the two Clavell volumes were once considered required if predictable reading for foreigners heading to Hong Kong for an extended spell, this six-hour condensation was, and still is, best avoided as a primer for new arrivals. In fact, it's hard to imagine Noble House being less authentic if it had been adapted as a Broadway musical with characters breaking into showtune numbers called Bad Joss and Call Me Taipan.

Several of the novel's subplots were cut for the screen adaptation, but every Hong Kong cliche and Chinese proverb in the book remains, driven home with all the finesse of a property developer's piledriver. Clavell was also an accomplished screenwriter, and it's a great pity he didn't pen the script for this instead of just picking up an executive producer's credit.

Just reissued for its 20th anniversary, this new DVD edition at least has some nostalgia value, and while we sit through the corporate battle between Ian Dunross (Pierce Brosnan, below) of Struan & Co (a thinly veiled version of Jardine Matheson) and his nemesis Quillan Gornt of Rothwell-Gornt (TV-movie regular John Rhys-Davies on top pantomime form), there's plenty of local sightseeing to be done.

A subplot involving a communist spy's infiltration of the Hong Kong Police Force is also a saving grace, with Gordon Jackson, Kay Tong Lim and Dudley Sutton effortlessly outperforming Brosnan, Deborah Raffin and Ben Masters (as the American corporate raiding couple). Other familiar faces include Nancy Kwan (The World of Suzie Wong, Flower Drum Song) as Brosnan's secretary and the ever-reliable Burt Kwouk (Cato in the Pink Panther movies) as his trusty-but-compromised comprador.

A sizeable piece of the action takes place in the Peninsula Hotel, and while the lobby and rooms are all studio sound stages, the real exterior gets plenty of product placement with about a dozen establishing shots. As the production's sponsoring airline, British Caledonian shows up with relentless frequency on the sides of buses, trams and buildings, but the exposure didn't do it much good. By the time Noble House had its first TV broadcast, the carrier had ceased to exist. And of course it's not the only thing that has since disappeared. Only in Hong Kong could a 20-year old movie leave the viewer frequently pining for lost heritage. Central Star Ferry Pier and Queen's Pier get a fair amount of screen time, and it's interesting to see the inner workings of Central Police Station, still very much a part of local life in 1988. There are also a few shots of Kai Tak airport and plenty of clear, unpolluted harbour views. That said, Noble House would probably benefit from spending another couple of decades in the cellar.

The extras: A strange offering from Lionsgate/Studio Canal, this new release is cheaply packaged with a low-resolution picture of Brosnan in front of the harbour skyline as it looks today, no liner notes or chapter list, and no extras other than some shoddily composed optional subtitles. The picture quality, on the other hand, is marvelously clear. Four 90-minute episodes are spread over two discs, taking up a hefty 7.5 gigabytes per disc, and the progressive transfer - produced earlier this year - is widescreen enhanced at 1.66:1 aspect ratio.