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San Francisco, Chinatown: Two immigrants, Jianwen (Sun Chien), an
A-student from Taiwan having come to the USA on a scholarship, and naive
Dong (Alexander Fu Sheng), an excellent martial artist who has run into
trouble in Hong Kong - through no fault of his own -, start working in
Chen's (Yang Chih-Ching) Chinese restaurant on the same day, and they soon
become the best of friends.
But then racketeer Hu (Lo Meng) threatens Chen when coming round to
collect the protection money, and Dong, always on the side of the weak,
defends his boss and single-handedly defeats Hu and his gang - with the
result that Chen, who doesn't want to get into any trouble, fires him on
the spot ...
Down and out, naive Dong is an easy prey for White Dragon (Philip
Kwok), Hu's chief rival, who tells Dong he's in the entertainment business
but is really the main drug peddler in Chinatown, and he's using Dong to
take care of the competition and protecting his own interests, and without
even knowing it, Dong has become a gangster, but since he's rolling in the
dough, he's not likely to ask too many questions ... until he realizes
that Jianwen won't no longer talk to him. It's only when Jianwen becomes
addicted to the drugs his gang sells that Dong starts an one-man war
against the drug trade as such - which his boss still knows how to use for
his own good when he sends Dong against his rival Hu and gang, that also
consists of Xu Hao (Wang Lung Wei), the man responsible for Dong being
chased out of Hong Kong. Of course, Dong takes Hu's gang apart
single-handedly ... but he realizes even this is not enough, drugs are
still sold on the streets, and when White Dragon sets him up with a
suitcase full of drugs to have him arrested, Dong finally puts two and two
together, and he and Jianwen, who has come over his little drug problem
and has turned out to be a pretty good martial artist, take White Dragon
and gang apart - which culminates in the whole gang being arrested,
including Dong, who sees to it though that Jianwen stays out of the whole
thing ...
Chang Cheh did definitely not have his best day when he made this film,
a weakly scripted and sloppily directed, clichéd gangster tale in which
the heroes (like ever so often in Chang Cheh's films) are way too good to
be true and the emphasis on friednship ans loyalty is so cheesy it almost
hurts. However, in his best films, Chang Cheh always manages to include
some interesting story elements or great setpieces to make the thing work
after all ... but not so here, Chinatown Kid is just a production
line actioner.
And that, despite the film being set in San Francisco, all the cars are
driving on the left-hand side of the street is almost annoying - but
maybe, on this account I'm a bit too picky ...
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