Confronto em Chinatown

After watching the recently released and remastered version of Heaven And Hell, I started digging through my collection and found possibly Fu Sheng's greatest film, The Chinatown Kid. This kung fu gangster story sports some awesome fight scenes and is a perfect example of why Shaw Brothers was truly a dynasty back in the day. With fantastic fighting skills, matinée idol looks, and magnetic charisma, Fu Sheng was on his way to becoming one of the greatest stars ever in Hong Kong cinema. Unfortunately, an automobile accident took him away from us too soon. This classic, featuring Fu and the original 5 venoms really needs a legitimate release. Hopefully, it will happen in my lifetime.

Chang Cheh's CHINATOWN KID (1977) is that rare Hong Kong kung fu film that takes place largely in America. A rise-and-fall gangster story (reminiscent of the same director's earlier BOXER FROM SHANTUNG), it serves as an excellent showcase for the talents of kung fu star Fu Sheng and offers a stellar supporting cast that includes all five of the actors who would later be known collectively as the Five Venoms. Although its recreation of San Francisco's Chinatown streets in a Hong Kong studio may not fool many American viewers, the film's sharp storytelling and frequent street fights make this a must-see for kung fu fans.

Fu Sheng plays a Chinese refugee in Hong Kong who runs afoul of a triad boss after freeing a girl who'd been abducted by a prostitution ring. With the help of the girl's family, he stows away on a ship to San Francisco and settles in Chinatown, working long hours at a restaurant alongside a student (future Venom Sun Chien) from Taiwan. Before too long, his kung fu skills get him into trouble again and he loses his job but is hired by one of the local criminal gangs. He fights hard for the gang and rises up in the ranks before his conscience gets the better of him after his student friend gets hooked on heroin. In the film's final battle, Fu Sheng takes on the entire White Dragon gang.

The chief villain in the Hong Kong segments is Wang Lung Wei as the triad boss who is angered when Fu Sheng frees the girl (played by Kara Hui Ying Hung, a future fighting star in her own right). Wang winds up following Fu Sheng to San Francisco where he allies with the Ching Wu group, headed by Lo Meng (the most muscular of the Five Venoms). Fu Sheng sides with Kuo Chui (aka Philip Kwok, the acrobatic Venom) of the rival White Dragons in their fight with Ching Wu. This sets the stage for a flurry of short, but spectacular brawls, set in the streets, clubs and gyms of San Francisco, featuring some of the top kung fu actor-fighters in the Hong Kong film industry of the late 1970s. Additional notables in the cast include Tsai Hung as an S.F. crime boss, while the two remaining future Venoms, Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng, play gang henchmen. Some attractive actresses are on hand as well, including Shirley Yu, Shaw Yin-Yin, and Jenny Tseng (Fu Sheng's wife).

While the studio-built streets are not terribly convincing, the costume and interior design vividly capture the tackier elements of 1970s American fashion and décor and give the film a fresh visual look distinguishing it from all other Hong Kong kung fu films of the era. (Location shots of San Francisco are inserted at regular intervals, including two or three actual location shots with Fu Sheng himself.) CHINATOWN KID recalls several earlier Chang Cheh kung fu films, although the Hollywood gangster film it most closely resembles is Brian De Palma's SCARFACE (1983), which was made six years later!

ADDENDUM (5/11/14): When the "restored" Mandarin-language Celestial DVD of this film was issued in 2004, it offered a much shorter version of the film, listed as 86 minutes as opposed to the English-dubbed VHS version I reviewed above, which is 114 minutes and came out from South Gate Entertainment in 1990. That's a difference of 28 minutes. Well, I finally watched both versions back-to-back and was startled to learn that the DVD offers quite a different version of the film, with several scenes not in the English dub and a greater emphasis on the student played by Sun Chien. We see more scenes of him in Taiwan well before his trip to the U.S. and his fateful friendship with Fu Sheng. One entire character, the mob boss played by Tsai Hung, is eliminated from the shorter version and different scenes serving the same purpose are added with Kuo Chui's character providing the exposition. Which is troubling, since some of Tsai Hung's scenes are among the best parts of the longer version and serve to keep the emphasis on the gangster intrigue that provides many of the plot's strong points. Also, the biggest fight scenes tend to be much shorter in the DVD. And the ending is very different with its big finale interrupted by a sudden intervention that would be completely out of place in the longer version, all presumably, I imagine, to end the film on a more positive, pro-education, message-oriented note. I think I can speak for other kung fu fans when I suggest that maybe this audience would prefer fewer messages and more fight choreography. Which is what the long version, now only available on an out-of-print VHS edition, gave us.

I don't normally watch martial arts movies that take place in a modern day city, but I kept seeing parts of this movie on T.V. and it eventually caught my interest.

This is actually a good movie. You do sort of get close to some of the characters (good acting for this type of movie).

Watching this movie today, it does feel rather dated, with the bell-bottom pants and some of the background music. Though, some of the music is kind of "cool" sounding, and fits in with the scenes. Wait till you see the modern digital wrist watch that the lead character becomes obsessed with (remember those big ones where you had to push a button to see the red LED light up the time? I do!)

The story is good and does have some morals to it. The scenery does look rather phoney. It looks as if a strong wind might blow down some of the stores downtown. Is a hot dog stand supposed to convince us that this is really America?

The dubbing is also very funny, and stereo-typical of Chinese people and kung fu movies.

Most of the fight scenes in this are not that great, and is probably the film's weak point. There seems to be too many fight scenes in this movie anyway. This is one of those rare martial arts film where the plot is more interesting than the fighting.

To some it up, this movie does have "campy" elements, and there are some poor production qualities. But the acting, character development, story, and even a few positive production values make this into a very watchable movie.

I recommend this to fans of Chinese martial arts movies, especially the older 70's/80's movies. Or anyone who likes to watch something a little different from time to time.

7 out of 10 stars.

Born out of director Chang Cheh's desire to make anything other than another period martial arts piece, Chinatown Kid doesn't quite live up to its status as a classic in the Shaw Brothers' library of works. Utilising the standard martial arts framework as a backdrop to an entertaining, though exceptionally lightweight, examination of the pitfalls often experienced by Chinese citizens abroad and the circumstances which can divide even the staunchest heart. Chang's direction is decent, Alexander Fu Sheng's performance is fabulous and the music gets the job done but the whole film doesn't quite come together as neatly as I'd like thanks to its barebones script and long-winded runtime, it doesn't exactly tread over new ground either. While Chinatown Kid includes a little bit of everything and then some; from comedy to gangsterism and kung fu to big shoot-outs, it ultimately fails to connect the dots and ends up as a relatively average affair with occasional strong points of contention.

No pun intended - I am not sure if anything was shot in America at all. It is quite obvious as with many if not all other Shaw Brothers movies, many shots especially those outside, were made without any permissions - i do not even have to look that up ... it is that obvious to me. Speaking of obvious, as you may know, cars have their steering wheel on the left side ... except for the UK and back in the day in Hong Kong too (a few other countries too, that are not important right now - most countries though and especially the US would have it on the left side) ... something that is obviously wrong in this movie .... well wrong location wise, but right from the standpoint from where the movie was shot.

Now if you don't mind smaller things like this ... you will have quite a lot of fun. Shaw Brothers movies may be more known for their classic Kung Fu movies, but "contemporary" Kung Fu movies (1970s in this case) like this one worked for them too. Really good cast, even if most may not be that well known for most western audiences ... still good choreography and tight story. Liked it a lot.