Dir.: Xie Jin; Script: Zhu Sujin, Ni Zhen, Zong Fuxian, Mai Tianshu; Phot.: Hou Yong; Ed.: David Wu, Qian Lili; Mus.: Jin Fuzai, Huang Hanqi; Cast: Bao Guoan, Lin Liankun, Su Min, Shung Lung, Lang Xiong, Bob Peck, Simon Williams, Shao Xin, Li Shilong, Ge Xiangting, Ko Shiang Ting, Gao Yuan, Jiang Hua, Li Weixin, Carrick Hagon, Philip Jackson, Rob Freeman, Emma Griffiths-Alin; Prod.: Chen Zhigu, The Opium War Film and Television Co. Ltd., 129 Lishi Hutong, Dongsi, Beijing 100010 (Chine), tél.: (86-10) 652 51 556, fax: (86-10) 651 26 864; Sales: The Opium War Film and Television Co. Ltd., Overseas Distribution Department, Flats A-E, 16/F Block "A", Marvel Ind. Bldg., 25-31 Kwai Fung Crescent, Kwai Chung, N.T., Hong Kong (Chine), tél.: (852) 233 02 806, fax: (852) 233 02 096 .

In 1839, viceroy Lin Zexu is sent to Canton by Emperor Daoguang to halt the opium trade in the south. A number of opium peddlers are arrested and hanged by the Pearl River. In June of 1839 over 20,000 cases of opium are confiscated in Hunen and publicly burnt. The British traders are dismayed and complain to London. Denton, of the powerful East Indian Company, finds himself blockaded and his Chinese partner, He Jingrong, is arrested by the incorruptible, fiercely nationalist Lin and thrown into prison. The British send an emissary, Charles Elliot, to find a solution to the standoff. He and the Chinese come up with a formula by which confiscated opium will be dumped at sea and the traders compensated by the British government. But, as Elliot had fully expected, this solution doesn't go down well among the more imperialistic elements in London and, accompanied by heated rhetoric, Parliament votes 271 to 262 to send warships to the Chinese coast. Qi Shan replaces Lin Zexu as the Emperor's envoy and attempts to forestall the British attack by offering to cede Hong Kong, but before the Emperor can consent to the deal, the British occupy the island. Incensed, the Emperor dismisses Qi Shan and decides to fight. When the "Opium War" ends, the defeated Chinese are forced to sign the Nanjing Treaty under which Hong Kong will remain a British colony for the next century and a half.