Chinatown Kid (4½ Stars)

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I was somewhat confused when I put "Chinatown Kid" in my Blu-ray player today. The disc contains three versions, called the American version (115 minutes), the Hong Kong version (91 minutes) and the German version (81 minutes). The disc offers no description of the differences between the versions, so I had to figure it out for myself.

Only the Hong Kong version has been remastered for Blu-ray. As is usual for the Shaw Brothers films released by Koch Media, it's in the original Chinese (presumably Cantonese) with subtitles in English or German. The German version is dubbed into German with no subtitles. The American version is dubbed into English or German, but there are also no subtitles.

Before I decided which version to watch, I did some research on the Web to find out what the reason was for the three versions. Many fans of kung fu films call the American version the original version, simply because it's the longest version, but that's not true. In the 1970's it was common for Shaw Brothers to make films for different markets. Different scenes were inserted into different versions. In particular, German releases had less violence and American releases had more nudity. None of the three versions of "Chinatown Kid" can be called the original version, because they were released simultaneously. Even the German version, the shortest of the three, contains footage not found in the other two versions.

Several web sites compare the American and the Hong Kong versions, while dismissing the German version as inferior. The three main differences are:

1. In the American version the two main characters, Tang Dong and Yang Jianwen, have approximately equal screen time. The Hong Kong version has less scenes with Yang Jianwen, putting more emphasis on Tang Dong.

2. In the American version there are love scenes with Tang Dong.

3. There's a completely different ending. In the Hong Kong version Tang Dong survives the final fight, in the American version he's killed.

I decided to watch the American version, but after five minutes the awful English dubbing annoyed me so much that I swapped to the Hong Kong version. Nevertheless, after the film was over I watched the final fight in the American film out of curiosity. I was amazed. They were two completely different fights, even though the same characters were taking part. In the Hong Kong film the characters were fighting with their fists, in the American version they were using knives. You can't get much more different than that. The Hong Kong version also has an epilogue missing from the American version.

Now let's get to describing the film. It's about two young men, very different to one another, even though they both come poor families. Tang Dong (played by Alexander Fu Sheng) comes from mainland China, but he's living in Hong Kong as an illegal immigrant. Yang Jianwen (played by Sun Chien in his first role) lives in Taiwan and has just completed his military service. He wants to go to America to study.

Tang Dong gets into a fight with a gang boss, who gets revenge by planting cocaine on him and calling the police. He beats up the police and has to flee the country. He stows away on a ship heading to America. He arrives in San Francisco at the same time as Yang Jianwen. Both of them apply for a job in a restaurant whose owner is prepared to hire illegal workers. They share a bedroom above the kitchen and become close friends.

The Green Tiger gang collects protection money from the restaurant's owner. The two friends see this and want to protect their boss, but he forbids them. He threatens to fire them if they start a fight. Yang Jianwen agrees, but Tang Dong beats up the gangsters in the street. His boss fires him immediately, but the fight is witnessed by the boss of the rival White Dragon gang, who makes him his personal bodyguard.

The two friends grow apart. Tang Dong rises in his gang's hierarchy and becomes rich. Yang Jianwen has trouble continuing his studies while working in the restaurant and turns to cocaine. The two men now look down on one another. Yang Jianwen despises Tang Dong as a gangster, while Tang Dong criticises Yang Jianwen for being a drug addict. What Tang Dong doesn't know is that the White Dragon gang is selling drugs to his former friend.

This is a very good film. While researching the differences between the three versions I read that most fans consider this to be Alexander Fu Sheng's best film. He was certainly an excellent fighter and a good comedian. The similarities with Jackie Chan are impossible to overlook, although he pre-dated Jackie Chan. Alexander was playing comic roles before Jackie Chan turned to comedy. It's tragic that his film career was cut short by his early death. He was killed in a car accident when he was 28.

Here are the film's lobby cards. I like lobby cards.

I'll definitely watch the American version some time soon. I'll watch it with the German dubbing, because it sounds much better than the English dubbing.