I haven’t done a movie review in a while especially my inconsistent but ongoing Shaw Brothers reviews, but I did get a chance to watch the English edition of The Chinatown Kid starring Fu Sheng. At first, I started watching the Chinese edition but ended up just swapping since it requires more concentration in reading the subtitles. But it’s one of my favorite Shaw Brothers movies and one of the best Fu Sheng roles around, which is why I wanted to write about it.
The movie’s premise is similar to other Shaw Brothers movies where you have a young kid who is good at kung fu but frequently gets into fights, leading to more conflicts and eventually tragedy. Fu Sheng played this role in other movies like The New Shaolin Boxers, Disciples of Shaolin and even a smaller version in Heaven and Hell. What makes The Chinatown Kid different is that it’s set in more modern times and partly in the US (for which there’s actual gorilla shot footage, some of which just had Fu Sheng wandering the streets of San Francisco).
Unlike those other movies mentioned, the premise adds the Venoms’ Sun Chien in what I think might’ve been his Shaw Brothers’ debut. Sun Chien plays a college student from Taiwan who desires to study abroad but tries to survive without the help of his folks. He learnt martial arts from military service to explain his Tae-kwon do skills.
We get introduced in the first half to both characters in a compare/contrast situation. Fu Sheng plays Tang Dong, a young kid who studied kung fu from the mainland and came illegally to Hong Kong to live with his elderly uncle. Both Tang Dong and uncle Tang are poor and must struggle to make ends meet. On the other hand, Sun Chien, playing Yang Jian Wen, has a better support system over in Taiwan. He has a proper job (which looks to be working as an engineer or architect) but probably wants to advance himself, which is why he wishes to study abroad.
Tang Dong can’t find work over in Hong Kong though because he’s there illegally and lacks the proper ID card/paperwork. Instead, he decides to become a hawker, hand squeezing oranges to sell orange juice with his uncle. Eventually, bad news comes by when Shaw Brothers favorite villain Wang Lung-Wei, as Xu Hao, a corrupt gang boss in Hong Kong, decides to stop with his thugs to get a drink. He recognizes Tang Dong’s potential ability for kung fu and Tang Dong is impressed by Xu Hao’s digital watch. Xu Hao makes an offer to give the watch to Tang Dong if he can beat him in a fight. Tang Dong, being naive, young and overconfident, accepts Xu Hao’s offer as well as chiding him that he probably will beat him. When Tang Dong and his uncle try to give back Xu Hao’s change, they’re insulted because Xu Hao doesn’t want it back at first. Uncle Tang still has pride so we get the initial tension with Tang Dong and Xu Hao. The police come to break up the illegal hawker activities and Tang Dong and his uncle are chased off.
At night, Tang Dong can’t sleep so he wanders around outside but is caught by the police for a routine inspection (what?). Coincidentally, Xu Hao had been driving around the neighborhood and saves Tang Dong, saying he’s employed by him. But it’s clear that Xu Hao has quite a bit of pull in that town. In turn, Tang Dong decides to accompany Xu Hao and recalls the original challenge. So they go off to a secret location for them to have a fight. Tang Dong dominates the fight, even when Xu Hao tries to use dirty tactics in getting a knife from his assistant. But Tang Dong manages to beat Xu Hao then retrieves the digital watch, which had been intentionally discarded during the fight and learns that it broke, which angers him into almost a new round of beatings for Xu Hao.
But Xu Hao’s girlfriend (at least in the English version) tells Tang Dong to back off before more trouble starts and offers him a different job. Here, they have Tang Dong try to relocate this girl who supposedly the girlfriend is cousins with. So he busts into an apartment and locates Kara Hui (in what I think also was her starting role with the Shaw Brothers) and rescues her. However, he finds out that the “cousin” is actually using Kara as a prostitute and she doesn’t trust anyone. The good hearted Tang Dong decides to return her to her proper family, which is a friend of uncle Tang apparently.
So this whole section was completely omitted from the Chinese version. The only thing that was odd in this version was the friend immediately showing up and seeming like a relative to Kara Hui then paying Tang Dong. I know they tried to connect the two plots together but there’s some weird messes here and there between both versions that seemed out of place.
Regardless, this puts Tang Dong into bad water with Xu Hao and Tang gets framed when Xu plants drugs on him. Xu informs the police on Tang which forces Tang to go into hiding. The police try to interrogate his uncle and the friend but eventually Tang calls them to plead his innocence. He returns to meet up with his uncle and friend and the conclusion is to move to the states by boat. It will force Tang to cross the boarder illegally by swimming once again but staying in Hong Kong will simply result in his arrest. He agrees but is warned by his uncle to work hard and stay out of trouble.
Around the same time, Yang Jian Wen prepares to leave as well. In contrast to Tang, Yang’s situation seems brighter with his friends giving him farewell celebrations and his family seeing him off to the airport. There’s some interesting anachronisms in these shots like Yang’s attire (he wears a turtle neck and has the most god awful glasses) or the little radio he’s carrying by hand through the airport. Also, for those old enough to remember, the airlines at that time were more lax in security so the family and friends could follow him closer towards the gateway.
Eventually, Yang arrives at a restaurant where he attempts to gain employment (illegally) through a friend of his father’s. The owner is a cheap, rough bastard and treats the respectful Yang with disdain and denies having much of a relationship with his father. Soon thereafter, Tang also arrives with the friend and is introduced to the restaurant owner for employment. The owner decides that Tang is better suited and hires him as Yang pleads his case. But Tang, being good hearted, offers to take his place. But the owner figures on getting the extra help will take advantage of the situation by cutting Yang’s wages very low, including slashing more after giving him a place to stay inside the restaurant.
In the Chinese version, there’s a longer scene where the friend takes both Yang and Tang to an Orange Julius (of all places) which serves noodles in Chinatown. Obviously, this place was another SB studio location scene but it just shows one of those details that stand out for anyone who might think it odd of having Orange Julius sell noodles. The friend gives Tang some start up money before he heads out. That leaves Yang and Tang to fend for themselves in a foreign country.
There’s a small scene showing the pair dealing with “kitchen politics” and Tang resorting to his old skills of freshly squeezing orange juice. When they go to sleep after work, they constantly bump their heads against the ceiling. Yang earlier had retrieved his inventory from the airport and provides Tang a small blanket. Both realize that there’s many opportunities in coming out to the states but know of their hardships and struggles. Tang talks about a saying about being poor and struggling while Yang places “no pain, no gain” (roughly translated) reminders on the wall.
From there, we’re introduced to one of the local villains, a rough guy played by Lo Meng as Green Dragon, who runs a gang understand the disguise of a martial arts school. Xu eventually shows up as a result of the Hong Kong boss and wants Green Dragon to exert more control over Chinatown. However, he has one obstacle in the form of a rival gang, which is much larger. The rival gang is run by Philip Kwok as White Dragon.
With Green Dragon, we see how he begins pushing locals around namely the restaurant owner that Tang and Yang work at as well as a dry cleaning spot where Tang becomes enamored with a young girl (played by his real life wife Jenny). At the dry cleaning spot, Tang gets into a fight with some of Green Dragon’s thugs. As that occurs, one of the underbosses for White Dragon witnesses the fight. Just before though, there’s a random introduction to this underboss played by Tsai Hung (Wan) where his bodyguard randomly kills someone in a dark alley using a secret belt knife. Both characters appear only in the English version, although the bodyguard might show up in the Chinese one without much explanation. But Wan pretty much seems to be at least near the level of White Dragon or that both report to some higher authority that is unseen.
When Tang returns to the restaurant, Green Dragon and a few of his men are there to extort money from the restaurant owner. He sees Yang cleaning tables and calls to him in trying to extort money from him as well. However, Yang earns so little and his situation is fragile already, forcing him to plead with Green Dragon to leave him unmolested. Eventually, Tang sticks up for his friend but Yang is disallowed from participating. There’s a side note where behind the scenes, Sun Chien hadn’t warmed up which prevented him from partaking in the fight.
Outside, Tang brutalizes Green Dragon to embarrassment, already having broken his nose but he’s forced to retreat. The crowd applauds Tang’s efforts and he receives a kiss from some random white girl telling him, “You’re the greatest!” Now, one little thing that I want to comment on was the use of white people in this film. None of them have significant roles but their English and acting are hilariously awful. One guy sticks out his thumb in approval and blurts out, “Great kung fu!” It’s even funnier because I think they get dubbed over in the Chinese version while the English version almost sounds like they’re double dubbed.
At any rate, the restaurant owner is pissed at Tang for causing trouble and fires him, kicks him out from living in the attic but gives him one month’s advance pay to make up for discarding Tang’s belongings. This leaves Tang practically homeless and jobless. However, back at the White Dragon club, White Dragon discusses with Wan about the fight and Wan believes that Tang is one of White Dragon’s men. They decide to plot and obtain Tang’s services, although finding him becomes a challenge. White Dragon’s girlfriend actually knows of Tang because she’s the daughter of the restaurant owner. So they try to inquire there but fail (I think that part only is in the Chinese version).
Then we go back to Tang’s story where we see him pretty much homeless and moping. Jenny or Yvonne, the dry cleaner’s daughter, sits at a Chinese hot dog stand (in Chinatown????), discussing Tang with the owner. Ironically, Tang is just around the corner and starts wandering nearby without realizing that the daughter is there. However, Yvonne sees Tang and honks her car’s horn to alert him. Then she buys him some hot dogs after he admits that he’s down on his luck. I think the Chinese version that actually is dubbed in English has Tang call hot dogs “dog meat sausage” which amuses Yvonne. So they head out to an overlook where he explains his situation and his struggles to her. Again, this might be more of the Chinese version because the one I saw edited that portion out.
At any rate, White Dragon is out with his girlfriend still after failing to locate Tang at her dad’s restaurant. However, they’re ambushed by Green Dragon and his gang. While White Dragon is able to defend himself, he eventually gets overwhelmed and starts to get beaten up badly. At that moment, Tang busts Green Dragon’s nose once again and he teams up with White Dragon to thwart Green Dragon and his thugs. Realizing that this kid might be Tang, White Dragon asks for Tang’s name and gets him to return to his club. They have a discussion about Tang’s situation and White Dragon offers employment to the desperate Tang. Eagerly, Tang accepts although he doesn’t realize that the actual job initially would be to get revenge and halt the Green Dragon’s operations.
White Dragon decides to do a full scale assault on the Green Dragon now armed with his kung fu expert. They decimate the Green Dragon, including White Dragon shooting Green Dragon to death and Tang beating his Hong Kong rival Xu to death, throwing him over the side of the building. Shocked that he actually murdered someone, Tang is distraught but White Dragon tries to reassure Tang that it was deserved. From there, White Dragon goes on a rampage through Chinatown with Tang as his special enforcer.
We get more gorilla shots of Tang now dressed in a suit wandering around again, but eventually bumping into Yang. At first, Yang does not recognize Tang, although the reverse is true. But once Tang reveals his identity, Yang denigrates Tang’s lost soul, saying he’s now infamous due to his affiliation. That angers Tang as all the materialism he lacked before is now his for the taking but at the cost of his honor and dignity. So he bashes one of numerous gold digital watches.
Still, he believes himself a good person. He makes good on his promise in sending his uncle a box full of glasses. A friend of the uncles declares that Tang has made it in the US as the uncle tries on the glasses. However, the uncle prefers straight money which leads Tang to ask Yvonne to aid him. When he goes to ask the favor, Yvonne’s father discourages Yvonne and tells Tang off in how his uncle would be ashamed at how the money was earned. In addition, Tang learns that Yang has become addicted to drugs and the two have a violent quarrel where Tang rebukes Yang’s own hypocrisy for being pure. Because it was the restaurant owner who informed on Yang to Tang, Tang gets the owner to watch over Yang and pays him. Before that, he was helping Yang out secretly in elevating Yang’s salary and asking the boss to put less stress on the student. As with most cowards, the boss ends up being more deferential towards Tang now that Tang has become a big shot.
Regardless, the incident makes Tang reflect on the White Dragon’s enterprises and he ends up becoming a vigilante to halt the drug trafficking in Chinatown. He also goes after White Dragon’s prostitutes, leading Wan and White Dragon to have a discussion on Tang next target (which would be White Dragon’s gambling halls) as well as how they intend to deal with Tang. They end up setting Tang up with some drugs where police catch him once again and go on to chase him (which is again hilarious because the chase scene is done with them driving on the left side of the road). Tang catches up to the guy who planted to the suitcase on him, beats the guy down and has the guy admit that White Dragon was responsible.
In turn, Tang goes to the White Dragon gambling hall to confront White Dragon, who isn’t there. However, he busts up the club. The English version has Tang encounter both Wan and his bodyguard. Tang ends up killing both but the bodyguard plays possum and manages to mortally wound Tang.
Meanwhile, White Dragon goes to the restaurant to figure out where Tang has gone as the drug bust failed. He corners the owner who forces Yang to try and get him to admit where Tang has gone. Due to their earlier conflict, Yang retorts that he no longer associates himself with Tang and was unaware of Tang’s help in giving him a raise, believing that the boss did it because of his hard work. White Dragon is angered and threatens to burn the restaurant down where Yang finally fights back. Yet White Dragon pulls a pistol on the guy and they apprehend him and return to the club.
There, they find the club busted up and White Dragon aims the pistol at Yang, who really is innocent in all of this. However, Tang had been hiding outside and obtained a shotgun. He has Yang collect the other thugs’ guns and shove them aside. As Tang enters the club, the other thugs attack, where Tang manages to get off a shot. From here on out, it’s an all out brawl with Tang and Yang fighting the thugs. Tang mostly engages with White Dragon and Yang handles the other thugs.
And here’s where things get muddied. The English version has the more coherent fight because Tang is injured and is bleeding from the stomach. The Chinese version did not shoot the previous injury scene but occasionally the edits show him bleeding without any explanation. However, at one point, Tang’s injury hinders him as White Dragon re-injures the wound and Tang goes down hard. Yang steps up and assaults White Dragon, grabbing White Dragon’s necklace and strangling him. He turns him around so that Tang, who still had the belt knife in his belly, stabs White Dragon with the weapon and kills the gang boss.
But in ripping out the knife, Tang loses too much blood and dies. However, he reconciles with Yang and gives Yang his digital watch, for which Yang finally accepts as he realizes that all this time, Tang still was his friend.
In the Chinese version, the scene is edited in a very odd manner. Rather than the double kill/knockout blows, the police siren’s are heard in the distance. Both Tang and Yang still fight but the police bust down and arrest both men. Before Tang is taken away in handcuffs, he still hands Yang his digital watch. Presumably, Tang will not only go to jail, but either serve significant time in prison and probably be deported. But he does mention that Yang should leave so that he isn’t caught up in the racket. Somehow, in this version, Yang still manages to elude the police (whereas after receiving the watch in the other version, he merely walks away).
From there, we go back to Taiwan where Yang’s father receives a letter from Yang about his progress. We learn that Yang has transferred schools to Harvard and has lost weight. Outside of Harvard (supposedly), a bunch of Asian kids are running around as the movie concludes.
For the most part, this is one of more enjoyable Shaw Brothers productions for me. I think there’s a few key weaknesses where things break down quickly. One is that the two versions cause the pacing to be uneven. I think the Chinese version has more story whereas the English version focuses on action. I don’t understand why certain subplots like Kara Hui are missing. Also, the events between both versions don’t line up nicely. The English version feels more coherent from point to point whereas the Chinese version things are reordered. An example is how Tang goes from street kid to pimp back to street kid with regards to his attire. However, some parts were chopped out like a longer scene in the Orange Julius with the friend, Tang and Yang. The Chinese version seemed to emphasize more cultural aspects that I think Chinese people would appreciate like the saying Tang repeats about struggling while being poor.
Another thing that somewhat ruins the movie for me are the sets and certain details that made it obvious they weren’t shooting in America. A good example is the chase scene. Same thing with the Orange Julius. It was quite obvious for the actual shots of San Francisco that Chang Cheh went gorilla since he lacked a permit. And some of those shots I really enjoy just because it’s fun seeing an older version of America. But eating noodles at an Orange Julius that supposedly exist in Chinatown was just bizarre.
I think some of the themes in the movie though were interesting especially for a kung fu movie. Topics like how foreigners in America struggle because they aren’t allowed to work without a visa or sponsorship are still relevant. I’ve known a lot of Japanese students who take a paycheck under the table to work at restaurants and make the bulk of the money through tips. And companies take advantage of people who can’t easily obtain a H1B Visa in dangling carrots since the paperwork is a nightmare and costly to process.
Another interesting topic that’s brought up is how foreign gangs might “protect” or control their own. I’m not sure what the status of Chinese gangs are in America, but I have heard about Vietnamese ones. It’s certainly imaginable how these types of situations can occur here without the authorities knowing or perhaps knowing too well and paid to look the other direction.
Then materialism arises here. This is a common theme in many Shaw Brothers movies. I mentioned that Disciples of Shaolin is another that shares similar characteristics of this movie. But the idea is how a young, poor man would get caught up in success but gets corrupted in the process. The digital or gold watch in both movies become symbols of materialism, success and corruption. In this movie, we see that despite the monetary success Tang receives, he loses his soul without considering the consequences of what he’s doing.
Pride and dignity are also big themes here. While most of the criticism leans into Tang’s character, we see Yang breaking down as well and resorting to drugs to aid in his studies and work. With Yang it’s important to note that he’s vulnerable too, despite all the initial support he receives from his family and friends. With Tang, he never truly devolves as a person outside of acting as White Dragon’s enforcer. Mostly, he’s still kind and tries to help those he cares about. And there’s some sympathy to be had for him because he was in a state of desperation with nothing, which is why Yang’s criticism was a hypocrisy as Yang’s state was a choice (he wanted to study aboard and did not ask for help from his family)
Finally, there’s the idea of hard work, which is very Asian in theme. The “no pain, no gain” sayings that Yang keeps on his wall as a reminder serve as an impossibly lofty goal. The problem is that there’s reality where eventually, one can’t be stubborn and that people need help. Yang is far too idealistic which is why he eventually cracks. Also, his own pride blinds him to Tang’s attempt at supporting him. Yang’s acceptance of Tang’s digital gold watch at the end demonstrate how he manages to make piece and realize what a friend Tang really was to him all that time.
Overall, this is a fun movie. I really love seeing the old San Francisco pictures from the 70s. While the Tang’s death is tragic, I still prefer that ending because it’s more somber than the Chinese version. Sun Chien with those thick glasses make him look ridiculous, especially when you realize it’s the same guy as the backstabbing Scorpion from the Five Deadly Venoms. But I really like Sun Chien and Fu Sheng’s chemistry together. And lastly, I wanted to say that this is the only movie in the Venoms series where I can recall seeing Philip Kwok play a bad guy. Usually, he’s the hero and mostly survives, but here he’s dastardly and gets killed at the end. So that alone makes this movie a novelty to watch especially if you’re a big Venoms fan like me.
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