Chinatown Kid

Frisco Fu Fighters

Chinatown Kid
aka Tang ren jie xiao zi
Hong Kong 1977
Directed by Cheh Chang
Shaw Brothers/Celestial Pictures
Arrow Blu Ray Zone B

Warning: Spoilers in this one.

Chinatown Kid is the eighth of the films presented in Volume One of Arrow Films ShawScope Blu Ray boxed edition and, like all but a couple of the films included in this box, it’s a first time watch from me. There are two very tonally different versions of the film presented here, the slightly happier ending 90 minute version and the darker, more shades of gray original cut, lasting almost two hours and with a much less optimistic ending (if either ending could said to be optimistic).

The film follows two characters, the primary being main lead Sheng Fu as Tan Tung. Now, I’ve seen Sheng Fu in a number of films in this set and I’ve quite warmed to his mischievous on screen personality and Beatles style mop top... so I was sad to learn, in one of the extras presented here that, at the height of his career and happily married to singing sensation Jenny (who also co-stars in Chinatown Kid), he died in a car crash at the age of 28, in the same period as he was filming The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter... a film I’ve not seen as yet but, when I watch it, if I notice his character suddenly dropping out of the narrative, well, at least I now know the reason why.

This film follows him getting in trouble in Hong Kong by basically helping somebody out and then having to exit the country hastily, after he is framed for drug possession and the police are after him. He flees Hong Kong, heading for a destination that we also see his co-star Chien Sun as Yang Chien-wen also go to.  Yang comes from a completely different class background, having won a scholarship to study abroad. So they both pitch up in San Francisco, where cinema marquees for such famous pornographic films as Deep Throat and The Devil In Miss Jones act as a perfect time capsule of the era.

The two co-stars meet and get illegal immigrant jobs in a restaurant but when Tan, who is very much the focus of the film, keeps getting into trouble defending people using his Kung Fu skills... he eventually finds himself out of work and out on the streets. However, the combination of his blind naivete and wanting to help people out means he’s suddenly working for one of the king pin bosses of Chinatown, going from rags to extreme riches in a matter of weeks. However, when he finds out his boss is actively involved in drug dealing, he then sets out to destroy that trade. It’s lots of ‘to’ing and ‘fro’ing through a moral minefield as Tan constantly strives to do the right thing and is constantly getting himself into more trouble every time he falls into the trap of helping people. Indeed, as the movie goes on, various people who he’s helped, then reject his friendship and he even finds himself at odds with Yang after a while.

The film has it’s fair share of fight scenes where Sheng Fu gets to show off his formidable martial arts skills, facing off against some opponents who seem to be almost as good as him. Occasionally, like in the big fight at the end of the picture, he fights side by side with Chien Sun, when Chien’s character finally understands just how Tan has been secretly helping him... by funding his studies with his fat cat gangster money.

And it’s an interesting film regarding the morality of the characters portrayed. In terms of the various gangland factions throughout the movie, there are no good guys. Everyone is either the ‘bad guy’ or the ‘not quite as bad guy’ but, of course, by the end of the film, even the slightly less sinister gang turns out to be just another bunch of ruthless criminals. The only real innocents in the movie are the two male leads... Tan due to his ignorance, naivete and loyalty to people and Yang, out of a sense of wanting to keep up with his studies (which leads him to drugs to stay awake to study after a long shift at work). And, as I said, it’s a nice time capsule movie too... I mean, how many films are there where the corrupted, innocent hero gets involved with the wrong people due to his desire to own a digital watch? Indeed, it’s a sign of the times and also a nice comment on the character that, when he is dying from his wound in the final scene (he’s just arrested in the shorter version), he tries to give Yang his digital watch as an ultimate symbol of their friendship.

And that’s me done on Chinatown Kid. It’s refreshing to see a Kung Fu filled Shaw Brothers movie actually set in times contemporary to when it was made. I mean, okay, The Mighty Peking Man (reviewed here) was, for sure but... yeah... that wasn’t a martial arts movie. I can see how pictures like this might have influenced the next generation of film directors and certainly, for instance, John Woo... who was an assistant director at Shaw Brothers in the late 1960s. So yeah, a funky score (excluding the terrible title song at the start, which Tan is forever quoting the lyrics from throughout the movie) of needle dropped cues from the De Wolf library, a chunk of which are included on one of the two accompanying soundtrack albums in Arrows mighty ShawScope Volume One box set and, even a dagger disguised as a belt buckle... make this a lively and fun watch. Worth a look.