Chinatown Kid

Chang Cheh's 1977 Hong Kong film follows Tan Tung, a young man skilled in street fighting. After clashing with local gangs he flees to San Francisco, meets the same arrangement there and rises quickly. The subject is what that rise costs. As Tan Tung comes to know money and power he moves away from his friends; the narrative shows this not as a moral lesson but as the inevitable result of the system. Alexander Fu Sheng leads. The film circulated in different lengths, with large sections cut in some versions, and the full cut could only be seen years later. The fight choreography stands out. Who it's for: those who like Hong Kong martial arts cinema of the seventies. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a narrative in which the hero wins; the film carries its character into collapse.