(GUN COCKS)
Would be a shame to waste that beautiful hairdo on a corpse.
Hoppy Jack doesn't like to be kept waiting.
I deliver. I'm not in a storage business.
YOUNG JUN: If this guy fucks us,
we won't have a dime left to buy from China.
We've uphold our end of the treaty. You're the only one I trust.
Your little truce with the Hop Wei
is starting to try my patience.
I need chaos. And quickly.
This onion just lied to your face.
(GRUNTING)
Do you really think she didn't know what would happen?
Walter Buckley.
The deputy mayor. What about him?
MAI LING: Insurance.
BILL O'HARA: I paid my debt.
ZING: You work for me.
Will this office protect the city's industries from Leary's thugs?
I can offer you protection.
What can you offer me?
[engine revs]
- [ragged breathing]
[man thuds]
[wild cheering and applause]
- It's getting harder for me to make money on you.
The odds on you have dropped to shit.
Unless you're willing to throw one?
Yeah, I didn't think so.
These men,
they're nowhere close to a fighter of your caliber.
If it's money you're after,
I know a place where the purse is much bigger:
ten times what you're pulling here.
- Thanks, but I've got a day job.
- Best fighters from all over the country.
If you're looking to prove something to yourself,
there's no better place to do it.
- You don't know me.
- Stay and have a drink with me.
- I'm sure you have plenty of company.
- Then I guess you don't know me either.
[speaking Spanish]
- [speaking Spanish]
- Still taking on all comers, I see.
Couldn't possibly need the chop,
what with your new molasses venture with Happy Jack.
- [scoffs]
Of course you know about that.
- Although if you ask me,
I don't see any version of that ending well.
- Well, I didn't...
ask you.
- No, I guess you didn't.
I offered it only to demonstrate you're not as good
at keeping your secrets as you may think.
For a guy with as many secrets as you.
- Sorry, what are you talking about?
- I'm talking about Mai Ling--
your obsession with taking her down
and her interest in you.
- Now you've lost me.
- When you got arrested a few months ago,
it was Mai Ling who paid me to secure your passage home.
And now you're risking everything to destroy her.
So that got me thinking.
Who is she to you?
- What's your game, Chao?
- No game.
I just like knowing.
- [scoffs]
Yeah?
What do you know?
- What I know is, before it's done,
this thing between you two,
this secret war, whatever it is...
we're all gonna suffer for it.
[dramatic spaghetti western music]
♪ ♪
[blade swishes]
[crowd chattering, laughing]
[sticks tapping]
- Mai Ling!
This is a rare treat.
If I knew you were coming,
I might have cleaned up the place.
- I wouldn't want to put you out.
- Move.
So...
What brings you to this neck of the woods?
- Well, you can pay me, for starters.
Based on the opium receipts, you were short this month.
About $70.
- I charged you a small service fee.
- For what, exactly?
- Suey Sing were embarrassing you.
I took care of it.
- I didn't ask you to do that.
- Well, you didn't have to.
That's what makes me such a valuable partner.
[chuckles]
- I expect the money you owe me by the end of the day.
And the next time you go against another tong
without consulting me,
I'll consider you in breach of our agreement.
And you'll find yourself out of the opium business
just as quickly as I put you in it.
[low, brooding music]
♪ ♪
Are we clear?
♪ ♪
- Sure.
♪ ♪
Let's drink on it.
♪ ♪
[slurps]
[smacks lips]
Mare's milk.
It's not for everyone.
[crowd murmurs, laughs]
[ladle clangs]
- [gasps]
[crowd chattering]
[man continues gasping]
- Be grateful for your pain.
Means you're still alive.
♪ ♪
[crowd chattering]
- Tongs, Penny?
This is beyond the pale, even for you.
- You made it perfectly clear the other day
there would be no help from City Hall.
My men were being attacked.
Factories are being firebombed.
- There are larger things at stake
than this damn factory!
- Not for me!
I did what I had to do.
- Then I'm sure you'll understand
when I do what I have to do.
- Are you threatening me, Samuel?
- If those thugs aren't gone by tomorrow,
you will leave me no choice but to pull the city contract,
once and for all.
Get rid of them!
[door slams]
- Good day, Mrs. Blake.
- Your half of the monthly rent on our properties.
- Something is wrong?
- The police came to see me at my office the other day.
They had a lot of questions about Timmons and McCormick.
I managed to put them off, but...
what if they come back?
- You remember name of police?
- Yeah. One was...
Lee. Officer Lee.
The other was a sergeant.
- O'Hara, yes?
Sergeant Bill O'Hara.
- That's right.
- You no have to worry about them.
They not be problem.
- How can you be so sure?
- Please.
You must trust.
- I still have nightmares about that night.
- I did for you. - [ragged breathing]
- To protect you.
I always protect partner.
- You were protecting your own interests.
- Yes.
This American way, no?
- [scoffs]
- Look at me.
I never hurt you.
[ominous music]
- I should get back to work.
♪ ♪
[crowd chattering]
- Need something, Officer?
- Exercise.
[glass shatters]
[men screaming, grunting]
[gunshot, man screams]
- [whimpering, panting]
[gun clicks]
- You made your point.
Just take it and go.
- Do you have any idea where he might be, ma'am?
I went by his site.
His foreman said he didn't come in to work this morning.
- Edgar didn't come home last night.
To tell you the truth,
I never know when to expect him anymore.
- Hmm.
- Is he in some kind of trouble?
- No, Mrs. Kellerman.
Well, that is, uh,
this isn't a police matter.
- You're collecting,
for the casino.
See to your sister.
- Edgar owes $40,
and the interest is accruing.
So, ma'am, anything you can give me in payment, uh--
what the hell are you doing?
- If you can see your way to giving us
just a little more time...
- Now, cover yourself.
- I made Mr. Damon very happy.
I'll make you happy too.
- Nah, you misunderstand me, Miss.
- Do I? - No.
Keep your fucking dress on!
What the hell do you take me for?
- I take you for a cop owned by the Chinese.
- I'll be back tomorrow.
Tell Edgar to have the damn money,
or it's out of my hands.
[sighs]
[distant chatter]
What's this?
- End of week.
Payday,
plus little extra
for poker tables.
- Put it toward Edgar Kellerman's debt.
- Not how we do business.
- Well, then,
shove it up your arse.
I'm done.
I mean it this time.
- We see.
- Fuck you.
I've more than paid my debt.
I'm finished--
with you, with all of this.
- Not how we do business, Bill.
- Well, we're not doing business, Zing.
Get it through that thick yellow skull of yours.
I am done.
And if you or your men ever come near me again--
you so much as look in my direction,
I'll bring the full fucking force
of the San Francisco Police Department
down on the Fung Hai.
Do you understand?
♪ ♪
- I don't see how you do it, Nellie,
walking into a ghastly place like that
with barely any protection.
- Well, thankfully I have friends in high places
who understand the importance of the work.
- It's the least we can do, Nellie,
considering your generous contributions
to this city's cultural and political life.
- Personally, I'd prefer to see you married again.
There, I said it.
Don't you want someone
to share this great big lonely home of yours with?
- Must a woman be married to have purpose, Willem?
- I don't understand the question.
- Mrs. Blake,
does your marriage give you purpose?
- Marriage means different things to different people.
It's my work that gives me purpose.
- Exactly.
And this city needs more fearless,
enterprising young women like you.
- For God's sake, don't encourage her.
[laughs]
- And I suppose there are no impoverished white women
in this city worthy of your help?
- We are a nation founded on such lofty principles.
If we can't do better than this,
then we have failed our charter.
- I can't imagine your late husband
would have approved of your frequenting such places.
- Well, I don't see why not.
He himself was quite familiar with them.
Well, you can all stop pretending to be shocked.
I was sitting right here
when a constable came and told me
that Fred had been found dead in a brothel on Powell.
Of course, I had to go and see for myself,
and there he was, naked and alone,
curled up, dead on this little cot.
The police were very concerned with
removing the body discreetly,
but I found myself more concerned with the girls.
Fred had a choice.
He chose
to sodomize a 14-year-old girl
until his heart gave out.
But the girl,
well, she'd had no choice at all.
I decided that if I was going to
commit my life to anyone,
it would be those poor girls, and not another man.
[chuckling] Oh.
I certainly don't mean to paint every man
with the same crooked brush.
I know all of you at this table are true gentlemen
who would never debase yourselves like that.
- [coughs, clears throat]
Forgive me, I seem to have had a little trouble...
[clears throat]
Swallowing that.
[cool percussive music]
- [knocks]
♪ ♪
[spaghetti western music]
♪ ♪
[knocks on door]
♪ ♪
- How we looking so far?
No fucking way.
Seriously?
At this rate, we're gonna make up the shortfall in, what,
three months?
- Maybe two,
with the extra chop we're making guarding the factory.
- [sighs]
I can't believe we actually pulled this shit off.
- Why not?
You've been waiting your whole life
to start making moves.
- Well, I couldn't have done it without you.
- Just remember that when you're running things.
- [grunts]
Tell me again.
How did you manage to hook us up
with that duck lady's factory?
Seriously, that was some lucky shit.
How'd you swing it?
- Uh...
- No.
No fucking way.
You got sticky with that?
- [sniffs] A gentleman never tells.
[rooster crows]
[keys jingle, lock clicks]
- Where the fuck are my daggers?
You were supposed to deliver them last night.
- I told your man.
I got wiped out.
The fucking bulls took everything.
- I place an order, I want my weapons.
- Well, it's not like you gave me a down payment.
- Are you saying you don't trust me?
[chuckles]
I'm hurt, Chao.
- Last time your boss ordered from me,
he didn't pay.
- Is that why you set him up to die?
You sit here in your bunker with your little arsenal,
selling to anyone who walks through that door.
You got no loyalties to anyone.
You think that somehow makes you better?
Or safer?
- Well, I don't know about safer.
- Half payment.
The rest when you deliver.
But see, Chao,
now we're in business together.
And when people work for me,
sooner or later, they only work for me.
[erhu playing]
♪ ♪
[men chattering]
[blade slices]
- Did you get him to talk yet? [chuckles]
- Quit beatin' your meat, Lee. [chuckles]
- Please tell me you're getting somewhere with this.
- I've gone through most of the weapons used by the tong,
and none of them cut through bone.
Now,
an experienced swordsman would have better technique,
but I have the benefit of hitting a stationary target.
[blade thuds]
- So the swordsman's not from one of the tongs.
[blade slices]
- I can't be a 100% sure,
but I'd wager against it.
A man tends to use the tool he's most comfortable with.
- Hmm.
What about Patterson?
Anything new there?
- Uh-uh. Not yet.
- What the fuck is this?
- Just trying to catch a swordsman, Chief.
[ax thuds]
- This is a police station,
not a fucking butcher shop.
Mind your beat like a real cop, and take this...
godforsaken thing with you before it turns.
Christ Almighty! I'm gonna throw up.
- Um, the missus wanted me to ask
if you're coming for dinner tonight.
- Oh, that's very generous of her,
but I can't let you feed me every night.
- Hmm. That's what I said.
But, uh, she's already told the kids,
so you wouldn't want to disappoint them.
- Oh.
In that case, what are we having?
- [exhales sharply]
Any sections there you haven't desecrated yet?
[meat squelches]
- Whoa!
- What the fuck?
- New recruits?
- Welcome.
You must be tired from your long journey.
[indistinct chatter]
Someone will show you to your room.
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
We need men who've been vetted, who we know we can trust.
- This is your big plan? Chinese hatchets?
- And we need to show the Six Companies
we've got things under control.
- We wouldn't need to if...
Give us the room.
Seriously?
Get the fuck out!
- You do not talk to council like that.
- I wouldn't have to if you showed me any respect.
Now I have to find out
you're bringing in new fighters like this?
It makes me look like a fucking idiot!
And we wouldn't have to beg China for help
if you hadn't let the Long Zii
into the mix in the first place.
- And you wonder why I didn't tell you.
- You said
I was the only one you could trust.
Was that just bullshit?
- No.
But trust goes both ways.
And you're still not smart enough
to know what you don't know.
- You got a light?
- [grunts]
- Thanks.
I'm gonna need a smoke to go with it.
- [grunts]
- Mmm.
- Something else I can help you with?
- Nah. Thanks.
I'm good.
Just happy to be here, you know?
America, man.
How long ago did you cross?
- [grunts]
- You're Ah Sahm, right?
I heard you can scrap like a motherfucker.
You lost in that tournament to the Long Zii,
but we all gotta lose sometime, right?
- Shouldn't you be with your friends?
- They don't actually like me very much.
- Go figure.
- Fuck 'em.
I'm Hong, by the way.
- Hong.
- Yeah.
- Go away, Hong.
- I need a fucking drink.
- You and me both, brother.
- Who the fuck is this?
- This is, uh...
Hong.
How'd that go? - Tell you how it went.
- Young Jun.
An honor to meet you.
- What do you want?
- Well, I was wondering where a guy goes
to get sticky around here.
[chuckles]
I've been on the salt for a month
with a bunch of smelly, puking onions.
But I'm a good fucking soldier.
I can scrap with the best of them,
and I'm loyal as shit.
But if I don't get my cock sucked soon,
I'll be begging you to kill me.
[both chuckle]
[door clicks open]
[distant chattering, music]
- No one's allowed back here.
- It's amazing how far you can get
in a roomful of men
with just a wink and a smile.
This is your plan?
- It's just a map.
- Yes, yeah.
With all the factories that hire coolie labor circled.
Not something you want the wrong person to see.
- And are you the wrong person?
- It's okay.
I know you like me.
- [inhales sharply]
Mm.
[whispers] Wait.
[panting]
This isn't gonna end well.
- Well, if that's true...
You're doing it wrong.
- [exhales sharply]
Mm.
[sighs]
[distant chatter]
- [sighs]
- Hey.
So you gonna say anything?
- You're a Chinese guy in America now.
You're gonna find out pretty soon
you got bigger problems.
[indistinct chatter, light music]
♪ ♪
You know, considering we both went upstairs at the same time,
seems like you finished pretty quickly.
- I finish quick, motherfucker,
but I recover quicker.
Xi Fan was just my warm-up.
- What's wrong?
- Mm.
- We start making moves behind China's back,
and suddenly they send over a bunch of soldiers?
I don't like the timing.
- Father Jun sent for them.
He said so himself.
- Yeah, which means he's talking to China,
which means pretty soon,
he'll find out we haven't placed an order.
Maybe we should call it off.
- Hey, listen to me.
We just got up and running.
It's working.
This isn't the time to lose your nerve.
By the time Father Jun hears anything from China,
we'll be able to show him the profits.
- I don't know.
I think he already knows something's up with us.
- Maybe,
maybe not.
But he's a businessman.
And what you are doing is smart business.
- [sighing] Ah.
[chuckling] This is a nice place.
I can't tell you guys how good it feels to be here.
Look, uh...
I was sensing a lot of tension
back there at the house,
and I'm not gonna pretend to know what's going on.
Maybe you and Father Jun
don't see eye-to-eye on the future of the tong
or maybe you're just an angry guy in general or--
- Or maybe I just don't like you.
- Well, I'm used to that.
Point is, you're Hop Wei
and I'm Hop Wei.
That makes us brothers, whether you like me or not.
And, brother, I will dice or die for you.
- Look, it's nothing personal;
we just don't need the help.
[slurps, gulps]
- [slurps]
[gulps]
[sighs sharply]
Hey.
You coming?
- Oh.
Where are we going?
- So we diced the fuck out of the Long Zii
a few months back, had them on their heels.
Could've finished them off, too,
but Mai Ling made a deal with the Fung Hai:
molasses for muscle.
- So it's true.
The Fung Hai are still around.
- Shh.
[men speaking Cantonese distantly]
There.
- That's the Fung Hai,
with the shit all over their face?
- Yeah.
[spaghetti western music]
- What the fuck is he doing?
Is it just me, or is this onion a little bit off?
♪ ♪
[smacking, man screams]
- I don't know, but...
I'm kind of starting to like him.
♪ ♪
[men scream]
[smacking and grunting]
♪ ♪
- Wait.
I want to see this.
[rousing music]
[smacking and grunting]
♪ ♪
[smacking and grunting]
♪ ♪
- So, the new guy's crazy.
- We can work with crazy.
♪ ♪
- Usually I like to handle these things myself.
But this is a unique situation.
Considering all the business we've done together
and the fact that the alliance
between the Long Zii and Fung Hai,
along with your newfound prosperity,
was achieved in some small part with my assistance,
I figured I could rely on you to help me settle this.
- What can I do?
- I don't want Zing anywhere near my shop.
He's bad for business.
Frankly, I wouldn't deal with him at all
if he wasn't aligned with you.
- But he is.
- You're his bread and butter. He'll listen to you.
- You took the order. Just fill it.
- I took the order from you, not him.
I don't need his business, and I don't like his threats.
- Be thankful for your pain, Chao.
It means you're still alive.
- Unlike the Suey Sing tong.
This isn't only about my pain.
Did you know that less than an hour ago,
some of your Fung Hai partners
got into a drunken scrap with the Hop Wei?
The Hop Wei are itching for you to break the treaty.
It won't take much of a leap for them to decide
the Fung Hai have done it for you.
- Thank you, Chao.
- Thank you for your time.
- You disapprove.
- Chao has been a valuable associate for many years.
- To every tong.
- Long Zii believed in loyalty.
- And look where that got him.
- So, your plan is, what,
to keep blowing up factories
until they stop hiring coolie labor?
- No one at the top seems to care.
We'll keep hitting 'em from the bottom till they do.
- If you want change-- lasting change--
you gotta be in the room where it happens.
You know, City Hall, uh, the state senate.
- This may come as a shock to you, Miss Mercer,
but they don't just let men like me into those rooms.
- [laughs]
Shame.
I would kill to see their faces if you showed up.
[laughs]
I am sorry about your friends.
The workingmen?
It must be terrible.
Are you ever sorry you came?
To America, I mean.
- We've a ways to go, but believe it or not,
it's still better here.
- It's funny.
Uh, people come here from all over the world
in search of a better life.
And all I've ever wanted to do is escape.
- You've got nothing to complain about.
- I know.
- You know?
What do you know?
I've seen whole villages wiped out by famine.
You know anything about that?
What it feels like to hear your brothers
in the middle of the night, crying because
they haven't had anything solid to eat in a week?
Then waking up one morning to find that they've passed?
And the shame
in realizing you're actually more relieved
than anything else.
You know?
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [moans]
[moans]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
[moaning]
[dishes clinking, food sizzling]
[crowd chattering]
- You know how Soo Han makes it taste so good?
He marinates his noodles
in a mixture of brine and cow's blood.
Only when the broth reaches its optimal flavor does--
- Chao.
It's soy sauce.
- You know what your problem is, Li Yong?
You have no imagination.
I heard the Suey Sing were slaughtered like animals.
- You know me better than that.
- I do.
Still...
how bad does it have to get?
- I'll kill him first.
- Even if you did,
the Fung Hai would come after you,
and Mai Ling would be forced to retaliate,
back and forth, on and on,
each of you grinding the other down
until the Hop Wei swoop in and finish you both off.
- [sniffs]
I'm guessing you have a better idea.
- What if there was another way to solve our little problem--
one that didn't require starting a war?
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
- [laughs]
So he's standing right there in the bullpen,
and he's hacking away at this giant slab of beef,
and there's blood oozing all over the floor.
- Right there at your desk? - Yes, ma'am.
- And he's going at it with these weapons, you know...
[bangs on the table] - You'll wake the babies.
- And Flannagan comes in, and he goes,
"You're not gonna catch a killer
turning my precinct into a butcher shop!"
- [laughs] That man's a pill.
God bless him.
Leave it. You help me enough
keeping an eye on this idiot all day.
[chuckles]
I feel a lot better knowing
you're out there with him, believe me.
- Sure, because I was completely helpless
for the first 20 years of my career.
- Finally, he admits it.
- Well, in that case, uh,
I think I'll take off, leave you folks be.
- Yeah, it's getting late.
- Dinner was delicious, as usual, Lucy.
But, uh...
To tell you the truth,
I'm, uh...
starting to feel like I'm imposing.
- You should consider yourself family by now.
We certainly do.
- Thank you, ma'am.
- Straight home, you hear me?
And, uh, try to get some sleep for a change.
- [scoffs]
Well, after that dinner, won't be a problem.
Good night, Ethan.
- Good night.
- Ethan. Dishes.
Ethan!
- Yeah?
- Now.
- [groans]
- Finish those up now.
- [murmurs]
- Molly's asleep, finally.
I hope Richard was able to relax tonight.
- He must have. He left his notebook.
Do you know how relaxed he'd have to be to leave this?
He's practically married to it.
- Well, it'll keep for a night.
I'll finish those.
Off to bed with ya. Night.
- Your mother'll be up to tuck you in.
- Night.
- Don't forget to say your prayers.
- All right, Dad.
- [grunts]
Jesus, Lee.
- Da?
- Didn't I tell ya to--
Whatever he wants,
I'll do it.
Wait.
Listen to me.
He is just a boy.
No! No, no!
[gunshot]
[body thuds]
Run!
[gunshot, Lucy screams]
[gunshot]
[men screaming]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [screams]
♪ ♪
[glass shatters]
[men screaming]
[grunting]
♪ ♪
[men screaming]
♪ ♪
[blade slices, man screams]
[blade squelches, Bill screams]
[man screaming]
♪ ♪
[both grunting]
[Bill screams]
♪ ♪
[blood splashes]
[both panting]
- Ethan! - [panting]
Ethan.
[panting]
[gasps, pants]
[pants]
[R.E.C.'s "SmashRegz"]
- [rapping in foreign language]
♪ ♪
[engine revs]
MAI LING: I've had nothing before,
and I've sacrificed too much to ever have nothing again.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
You're lying to me, and we both know it.
This sort of violence cannot be tolerated.
(GRUNTING)
America, land of opportunity.
No one would miss you if you disappeared.
-They want blood. -(GUNS COCK)
Turning against your own people. That's no smart thing.
(GRUNTING)