Chinatown Kid

Chinatown Kid (Tang Ren Jie Xiao Zi) (1977)

Runtime: 115 minutes

Directed by: Chang Cheh

Starring: Alexander Sheng Fu, Sun Chien, Jenny Tseng, Philip Kwok, Lo Mang

From: Shaw Brothers

Pabst Blue Ribbon, bootleg orange juice, & LED watches are bigger plot points than I expected.

It's been since April that I had last seen something from Shaw Brothers. A big release from Arrow of 12 movies from the studio (to be released late this month) has their prints now available on their streaming site. As someone asked in a messageboard thread, the print I saw is restored and unedited-apparently, Western releases of this were all cut. Despite it being directed by Chang Cheh & starring Alexander Fu Sheng, it was not a typical SB period piece... rather, it was set in Hong Kong, Taiwan and San Francisco—most of it was filmed in Hong Kong on indoor/outdoor sets & only some clips were photographed in the United States.

Fu Sheng played a Chinese version of a country bumpkin named Tan Tung who moves to Hong Kong to be around his grandfather. They are poor & he stirs up the pot so much, he has to illegally immigrate to San Francisco where he stirs up even more trouble by being in the middle of a feud between two gangs... which also ropes in a college student from Taiwan who is struggling to make ends meet in the Bay Area. This involves such things as corrupt cops, drugs, the dangers of wealth/greed and the Triad. 

There is too much bad comedy, which was unfortunate. Otherwise, this was a good time. My personal tastes lean towards enjoying 70's culture so the funky music and clothing was to my liking. It was an entertaining-enough yarn although it was not the best modern times Shaw Brothers picture I have viewed-that honor goes to 1976's The Sexy Killer, which believe it or not was a ripoff of Coffy-but at least it still has enjoyable fight scenes-not excellent, yet still enjoyable. More niche things that tickled me pink were: Tung squeezing orange juice by hand to sell it at a stand that is bootleg as he does not have an ID card, several characters consuming Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Tung desiring an LED watch. Not the LCD watches that first debuted around the time this film came out; rather, it was LED where you had to push a button for the time to appear for a few seconds. Just a few years earlier they were such hot s*** as technology that they cost more than a Rolex and 007 briefly had one on in Live or Let Die. Probably around this time they fell out of favor as LCD was honestly better for such a device.

All that said, it won't be 8 months before I see something else from the studio.