Chinatown Kid

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.

The Chinatown Kid (1977) is another masterpiece from Chang Cheh. Alexander Fu Sheng stars as Tang Dong, a bumpkin who illegally immigrates to Hong Kong (with the aid of his uncle) and works odd jobs whilst dreaming about becoming rich and successful. The film also tells the story of a young Taiwanese man who just did a stint in the military who works hard and aspires to become a success. His chance comes when he's offered a scholarship at U.C. Berkely. Two lives that parallel each other eventually cross paths in San Francisco's Chinatown. This film is somewhat similar to Chang Cheh's other films Boxer From Shan tung and The Delinquent. Both of them have the same theme and they're all equally excellent. Ni Kuang reworks the theme by not only modernizing it but by bringing it to "Chinatown". The future Five Deadly Venoms all have small parts in this movie. The movie is cheesy and preachy at times but it's all done in jest. Alexander Fu Sheng shows that he's a lead actor in this movie and it's sad that his life was cut short several years later. His future wife Jenny Tsang has a small part as his girlfriend (but strangely disappears after a couple of scenes) and Philip Kwok co-stars as Tan Dong benefactor. Overall Chinatown Kid is not as deep or heavy as Chang Cheh''s other films but it's good fun and nicely paced and edited.

Highly recommended.

There are a few things I found strange about this film. One, Chinatown in this movie is very dusty. Two, the car's driver side is on the right hand side.Three, someone forgot to convert Hong Kong Dollars into U.S. Dollars

(i.e. five dollars for a hot dog in 1977?). What's even funnier is the fact the sign outside the hot dog stand says 5.00 USD for "hot dogs" and sold canned beer. (Tan Dong called them "dog sausages"). The biggest laugh was the Orange Julius that sold noodles.

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.

This movie is a classic of the late star Alexander Fu Sheng. Here, he plays a guy who gets in trouble back home and is then sent to San Francisco. He finds work at a Chinese restaurant but after getting fired for standing up to gangsters, he joins a rival gang and makes it big.

The current DVD versions of the film are horrendous. Too bad, since this is an all-time classic.

8 out of ten for the movie, 0 out of ten for the DVD transfer.