Warrior

My favorite moment is just the first moment.

You see the door open and you see America.

This is part of American history that has been totally ignored.

This Chinese-American migration,

that chapter is so important to our country

had never been really showcased.

Think you can take me on?

That's the wrong question.

Oh, yeah? What's the right one?

The right question is, "Do you really want to find out"?

I think initially Wang Chao sees Ah Sahm as a valuable commodity.

But despite all that, Chao sees something else in him.

He's very well-trained.

I thought I'd bring him here first.

I instantly take a liking to him

because there's a certain cockiness, assuredness about him.

Immediately I take him under my wing,

and I get to paint the narrative for him.

And I can be his tour guide

to this Chinatown that I'm the prince of.

And who do we have here?

This is Ah Sahm. Just crossed.

Fresh off the boat.

It's a time when San Francisco is sort of the wild west, to a degree.

Many of the Chinese women who were brought over at the time

were brought over as slaves,

and were sold into sexual slavery.

And for any woman to be independently wealthy

is almost unheard of.

For a Chinese woman

to be independently wealthy is astounding.

Well, as far as I know,

there's exactly one woman in this house who's not for sale.

There was an immigration ban on Chinese.

And it prevented women from coming in.

And so, we have a Chinatown of bachelors.

So, they had to form social groups and these groups became tongs.

"Tong" translates in Cantonese as club or association.

War is coming between the tongs.

If you can scrap, you're in.

The tongs were first formed to be hospitality organizations

for incoming immigrants.

And they started, I think, with the best of intentions.

The tongs kind of Rose out of necessity.

And then it became a power grab.

Who could grab the best perch in prostitution or opium or gambling.

Chinatown became sort of the Las Vegas of San Francisco in that regard.

So, whoever could control it on the Chinatown side

would make the most money.

Loyalty above all.

I'm sure, as he's getting the brand burned into the flesh of his skin

he's probably thinking, "I'm smart. I can get out of this".

He's just there on his own terms

to find someone that he cares about and loves

and want to make amends to and then get the hell out of there.