Film The Silk Road

The movie was adapted from the 1959 novel Tun-Huang by Yasushi Inoue. The backdrop of the plotline is the Mogao Caves, a Buddhist manuscript trove in Dunhuang, Western China, located along the Silk Road during the Song dynasty in the 11th century.

The Silk Road
Directed by	Junya Satō
Written by	Junya Satō Takeshi Yoshida
Based on	Tun-Huang by Yasushi Inoue
Produced by	Kazuo Haruna Atsushi Takeda Yoshihiro Yûki
Starring	Toshiyuki Nishida
Cinematography	Akira Shiizuka
Edited by	Akira Suzuki
Music by	Masaru Satō
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	June 25, 1988 (1988-06-25)
Running time	143 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	¥8.2 billion (Japan) $123,959 (USA)

The film was released in Japan and China on June 25, 1988. It was chosen as Best Film at the Japan Academy Prize ceremony. It is one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of all time.

• Toshiyuki Nishida as Zhu Wangli, a commander of the Xi Xia empire
• Kōichi Satō as Zhao Xingde, a student of Zhu Wangli
• Anna Nakagawa as Tsurpia, a princess of a Uyghur kingdom
• Tsunehiko Watase as Li Yuanhao, the Xi Xia emperor
• Takahiro Tamura as Tsao Yanhui

The Silk Road was the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1988, earning ¥4.5 billion in distribution income that year. It was the third highest-grossing Japanese film up until then, after Antarctica and The Adventures of Milo and Otis, and remains one of the highest-grossing Japanese films. As of 2013^[update], the film has grossed a total of ¥8.2 billion in Japan. In the United States, it grossed $123,959.

• List of historical drama films of Asia