Year of the Dragon

~ Year of the Dragon (1985) ~

Come on, back off. Move back a little bit.

Come on, let the funeral through. Come on, stay back.

Get Laura. That's the daughter.

Get a close-up. Go to her.

Come on. Excuse me. Hey. Don't touch the camera.

Miss, please don't cause any problems.

We're not causing any problems.

John, let's get McKenna.

Captain McKenna?

Any leads in Jackie Wong's murder? Nothing at this time.

Do you think this means there's a war in Chinatown?

No, I don't.

It's a situation where the youth gangs are lashing out at the establishment.

The community's cooperating. The situation's under control.

Hey, kid. What's going on? We gotta talk, Lenny. Privately.

Sure. Some funeral, huh?

So, what's new, kid? Listen, no news this week.

But I got some uptown you should try. Give you a taste, for nothing.

You grease balls don't listen. What you talking about?

Fuck you. You want to play games with me?

I thought it was loud and clear, this is our street now.

You wanna stay on this street, you pay us like everybody else.

Come on, Ronnie, me? You wanna extort money from me?

You know who you're talking to? You know who my cousins are?

I don't fucking care who your cousins are. You fucking listen to me.

Fuck your cousins. No one rides free anymore. You owe me money.

It's 300 a week to operate here. Four weeks, that's 1200 bucks you owe.

You come across Canal Street, throwing your weight around?

Little Chink scumbag. You'll end up with a wire around your fucking neck.

Now get out of here before I kick your ass... Hey, kid.

The rumor is that Jackie Wong was more than the unofficial mayor of Chinatown.

That he was also the head of a secret triad.

Jackie Wong, no question, will be missed.

He was loved. He made money for his people.

But the head of a secret triad? There's no triads in New York.

I'm sure you've heard old rumors that Wong's successor, Harry Yung...

Was a corrupt Hong Kong policeman who came here with $15 million.

Fifteen million dollars? That's a good one.

Somebody should tell Harry Yung that.

I have no further comments. You have that?

- Yep. - Okay.

You're a hell of a reporter, honey.

You're talking to a guy with a bag on his head and cotton in his ears.

Stick around, you might learn something.

Who are you?

Just ask for Stanley White. Which Stanley White?

There's only one Stanley White.

Hello, will, how's the view up there? You can see a long way.

Still believe in keeping a high police profile, huh?

If you wore your uniform, you'd know...

That police visibility is the strongest deterrent to crime.

It doesn't look like you're deterring much around here.

Aren't you in the wrong precinct? No. They gave me a new command.

Oh, yeah? What'd they give you? Chinatown.

That's right, they just cut off your oats.

Why? Because of this?

How was I supposed to prevent this?

How am I supposed to prevent anything around here?

Come on, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. Now what the hell?

Like I told you before, man, no pictures.

John.

Go to her. Right there. Get Laura Wong. Get the close-up, come on.

That's the daughter.

I'm not gonna tell you... Don't touch the camera.

Get rid of the camera. Lose the camera.

This camera is none of your business. Go away.

Hey, that's enough. Hey. What'd I tell you before? Get on out of here.

Come on, move aside. Move aside. He's over there in the back.

Tell me when, okay? Tell me when.

Okay?

And so with the passing of "Big" Jackie Wong...

A piece of Chinatown history passes with him.

This is Tracy Tzu. WKXT news. Mott street, Chinatown.

What are you assholes doing around here?

Just hanging out.

Yo, man. What the fuck are you doing?

Get off, you fucking bastard. Get off.

You can't come down here. Get the fuck off me.

It's no raid. Keep on playing. No problem.

I'm looking for Uncle Harry.

Not here, white devil, get out.

Where's Harry? Not here. Maybe bank.

Hey, he's going to be back soon.

You tell Harry, I'm coming over.

Get out.

Let's play.

You let the white devil into our place?

What the...?

What's going on with you?

I'm looking for uncle Harry. Where's Harry Yung?

Where are you going? Harry in there?

Where are you going?

Thought we should all have a little talk since we're both new at our jobs.

Why did you go to the gambling place, huh?

We had the same arrangement over a long period of time.

No policeman ever go to gambling club.

Foolish man. Rude. I'm going to have to tell your superiors.

Well, it won't be the first time, Uncle Harry.

I'm glad you guys are here. Saves me some lung power.

This is it. I'll give it to you fast. There's a new marshal in town.

Me. New marshal means new rules.

New rules means no more street violence. You collar the gangs.

I don't wanna see their fucking faces unless they're serving me in a restaurant.

I don't care what you do. Get them jobs catching cockroaches.

Get them off the streets. Nobody can control the gangs.

Everybody knows that. Too big a problem.

Captain, Chinatown behind you all the way.

In favor of what you do. You take gang kid in the alley.

You put bag over their head. You beat them with club.

Chinatown behind you 100 percent. One hundred percent.

Good, because I'm gonna need your help.

I'm gonna put a stop to all this bribe-paying and extortion to gangs.

I want the help of all 60 families...

And merchant associations. I want you people...

Wait a minute, Captain. This is very difficult. Very, very difficult.

There's a long history.

For thousands of years, Chinese do not go to the police.

If they go to the police, they'll get in trouble.

So I'll tell you straight. Nobody will come to see you.

You tell him what we mean.

No disrespect is intended to the police by our remarks.

But if the citizens of Chinatown regard what you call extortion and bribery...

As part of the cost of business, and have felt that way for thousands of years...

Why should you be so concerned?

What about the ones that don't wanna pay?

You tell him.

When I first came to New York, I worked as a waiter in a restaurant.

Something terrible happened because my boss did not want to pay.

I signed a complaint against a gang leader who was arrested.

Next day, he was out on the streets again.

Now, six months go by before his trial...

And the police chief was transferred to the Bronx.

This was, what, six or seven chiefs before McKenna?

Seven.

And the new chief dropped the charges.

Three months later I got stabbed right here.

Show him. See?

You must understand, Captain. To us, your good Samaritan was a fool...

To risk the security of his family to help a stranger.

You're too impressed with yourself. Fuck you.

What did you say? I said, fuck you.

I'm tired of all this "Chinese this, Chinese that."

You people, you think gambling, extortion, corruption are kosher?

Because it's 1000 years old?

Well, all this 1000-year-old stuff, it's a lot of shit to me.

This is America you're living in, and it's 200 years old.

So you better get your clocks fixed.

You're not special, and you're not beyond the law...

Any more than the Puerto Ricans or the Pollacks.

So we're all gonna obey the law the way it says.

So start doing something about it, and fast. Or you're all gonna suffer.

You can believe that.

How will we deal with this?

Morning, Stan.

- Morning, Stan. - Hi, Stan.

- Morning, Stan. - Morning, Stan.

He's early. He's always early.

I got a complaint about you already. There's a line around the block.

Harry Yung is very upset about you busting...

Into his place of business on a day of mourning.

He says you're threatening the arrangement we've always had.

What is this arrangement? Is it carved in...

Stone? Did it come out of a burning bush?

What the hell did you rush in there for?

You made them lose face, you made us lose face.

They were just sitting there, having breakfast.

What kind of evidence did you have to go in there?

With these people, you won't have any. You're talking shit, Stanley.

Lou, I didn't buy this job. You gave it to me.

I told you to kick ass on the youth gangs, not the old guys.

You lay off them, you hear?

The 5th precinct's a nice, quiet area, Stanley.

Good springboard for promotion. If you get mine meaning.

Lou, I've been down there one Goddamned day.

Doesn't take a genius to figure out something's going on.

There's gonna be blood flowing in the gutters.

These Chinese are gonna muscle across canal.

They're gonna push the mafia out.

I'm talking banks, real estate, drug money...

Who told you this? The DEA?

They've been peddling that cock and bullshit

Chinese mafia theory for years.

And they never made a case in Chinatown.

I wouldn't believe nothing, those clowns says.

You don't know what the Hell you're talking about.

The mafia concept's not even Italian. It's Chinese.

It's Chinese.

It was invented in China 1000 years ago. They call them Triads.

That's what we have here. We have the offshoots of the Hong Kong Triads.

You're letting your imagination run. No, Lou, like hell I am.

These people are the biggest overall importers of heroin in this country.

And the fact that we don't have one single bust...

Against one of these guys tells me something.

They're smart, Lou. They're smarter than you and Kearney, this Irish sphinx.

At least I didn't change my name, Wizynski.

What do you want?

You want to attack Chinatown with the 82nd airborne?

You're not in Vietnam here, Stanley.

There difference was, I never saw the Goddamned enemy.