Jimmy Tsui, a former member of the Sun Yee On triad in Hong Kong and Tung On in New York City's Chinatown, breaks down 12 Chinese organized-crime scenes in movies and TV shows based on realism.
Tsui breaks down the accuracy of triad activities in Hong Kong and the United States, such as the money-laundering scenes in "Rush Hour 2," with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker; "A Better Tomorrow," with Chow Yun-fat and Leslie Cheung; the human smuggling ring in "Lethal Weapon 4," with Jet Li, Mel Gibson, and Danny Glover; and the connection of triads with the nightclub and movie industries in Hong Kong in "Young and Dangerous 3." He explains the realism of triads dealing with law enforcement and other international criminal organizations, such as the Irish Mob in "The Departed," with Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson; the tensions between the yakuza and the San Francisco triad in "War," with Jason Statham; the relationship between the Hong Kong police and the triads in "Infernal Affairs," starring Tony Leung and Andy Lau; and the interaction with motorcycle clubs in "Sons of Anarchy" S6E10. Tsui also looks at scenes in New York City's Chinatown, such as the rivalry between two Tong associations in "The Corruptor," with Mark Wahlberg and Chow Yun-fat; and the gambling-house scene in "Year of the Dragon." Tsui also explains the rituals and hierarchy of the triads, such as the initiation-ceremony scene in "Election" (2005) and the voting scene in "The Brothers Sun" E7, starring Michelle Yeoh.
Tsui was involved with the Sun Yee On triad and Tung On in New York City's Chinatown for over 10 years. In 1985 in New York, he was arrested and charged with robbery and homicide with a $1.5 million bail. The case was dismissed and resulted in his transition into Sun Yee On in 1988. He was involved in karaoke bars, gambling houses, and various scams. After leaving the triads, Tsui got involved with Chinatown Gang Stories, a YouTube channel organized by Mike Moy, a former gang member and New York City Police Department officer.
You can learn more about Jimmy Tsui's story here:
https://www.youtube.com/@chinatowngangstories
Tsui breaks down the accuracy of triad activities in Hong Kong and the United States, such as the money-laundering scenes in "Rush Hour 2," with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker; "A Better Tomorrow," with Chow Yun-fat and Leslie Cheung; the human smuggling ring in "Lethal Weapon 4," with Jet Li, Mel Gibson, and Danny Glover; and the connection of triads with the nightclub and movie industries in Hong Kong in "Young and Dangerous 3." He explains the realism of triads dealing with law enforcement and other international criminal organizations, such as the Irish Mob in "The Departed," with Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson; the tensions between the yakuza and the San Francisco triad in "War," with Jason Statham; the relationship between the Hong Kong police and the triads in "Infernal Affairs," starring Tony Leung and Andy Lau; and the interaction with motorcycle clubs in "Sons of Anarchy" S6E10. Tsui also looks at scenes in New York City's Chinatown, such as the rivalry between two Tong associations in "The Corruptor," with Mark Wahlberg and Chow Yun-fat; and the gambling-house scene in "Year of the Dragon." Tsui also explains the rituals and hierarchy of the triads, such as the initiation-ceremony scene in "Election" (2005) and the voting scene in "The Brothers Sun" E7, starring Michelle Yeoh.
Tsui was involved with the Sun Yee On triad and Tung On in New York City's Chinatown for over 10 years. In 1985 in New York, he was arrested and charged with robbery and homicide with a $1.5 million bail. The case was dismissed and resulted in his transition into Sun Yee On in 1988. He was involved in karaoke bars, gambling houses, and various scams. After leaving the triads, Tsui got involved with Chinatown Gang Stories, a YouTube channel organized by Mike Moy, a former gang member and New York City Police Department officer.
You can learn more about Jimmy Tsui's story here:
https://www.youtube.com/@chinatowngangstories
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TechTranscript
00:00That's impossible. How are you going to use a machine gun and shoot it in the highway?
00:08You think the police, what, they all went home?
00:11Hi everybody, my name is Jimmy Hsu, also known as Big Head. I'm a foremost member of the
00:16largest triad in Hong Kong called Sun Yeon and also a member of a gang in New York City
00:21called Dong On.
00:22Today, we'll be looking at triads and Chinese organized crime, movie and TV, and just how
00:29real they are.
00:37In the scene, the detectives find out that inside the casino, they are doing the money
00:43laundering. Money laundering is very common in the triad or gang world. For this scene,
00:50I think that's not possible, people doing that large amount of money laundering inside
00:57a casino.
00:58I've been working in a casino before. I work in an island city. We have to go through a
01:03lot of security check. For a stranger like this, walking inside a casino, I don't think
01:11so. There's no way.
01:16For Hsu using the saw, that's not going to happen. In triad society, they like to use
01:22knife, all kind of, different kind of knife. The one especially they call it waterman knife
01:29because that knife is sharp and easy to hide. But no one going to carry a saw out on the
01:35street. How you going to hide a saw?
01:38In Hong Kong's law for the gun, for illegal possession of weapon, for firearm, it's very
01:44restricted. I would give this one a rating of five. Inside a casino doing this large
01:51amount of money laundering, that's impossible.
01:57I'm concerned about a Chinaman who thinks it's wise to come to a business transaction
02:02with automatic weapons.
02:06Just like the gentleman say, why you carry a machine gun only when you start a war and
02:13you carry a machine gun? Hong Kong triad, you can think as a business. Anything which
02:21is profitable, they will do it. So they don't care who they're dealing with as long there's
02:28an interest. I heard like working with the Mexican cartel, the Italian mafia, the Thai
02:36mafia, Japan's accuser, but I never heard Irish mafia before.
02:43They better shape up and show me one million dollars.
02:51Honestly I never heard they have an interpreter in doing this. Just like I've been seeing
02:56before dealing with Thailand's people, so find someone who can speak Thai. With Japanese
03:04people, someone who can speak Japanese. We will not go in to hire someone to do the interpreter
03:09in doing this thing.
03:10With a triad member dealing with some other group and someone get this kind of behavior
03:18attitude and I think I got to quit. I got to turn around, cancel it.
03:24We are doing business. We are not fighting each other. It's no one bigger and it's no
03:28one higher, nothing.
03:37And doing this kind of deal, only in the movie. They try to buy Michael Parsons from them.
03:43How are you going to prove that it's real or not? Mainland China, they have a lot of
03:47counterfeit, any product. Like watches, shoes, sneakers, jewelry. If they want to buy a product,
03:57why didn't they just make a counterfeit? It's a lot cheaper and easier.
04:04For this movie I'm going to wait five. In reality, it's not going to happen.
04:14For the drugs smuggling into Hong Kong, that's very common. When my times at triad or gang,
04:23I was involved in extortion, prostitution and drugs. Yeah, I've seen a lot of this
04:31kind of deal before. We won't do it in the public. It's always some place you don't know.
04:38But for this, this guy yelling out from the bowl and saying, I got the stuff, everything's
04:45good. That's bulls**t. You're not going to yell out to everybody you know what kind of
04:52stuff it is, right?
05:00This movie is like 80% real, I can tell you. This movie is talking about a traitor. A traitor
05:10inside the triad and a traitor inside the police department. I have met a lot of people
05:16is the triad member and they working for the police department. By the way, this movie,
05:23the Hollywood movie Deported, is remake for this one.
05:35In the 70s, a Hong Kong police force and triad is no different. The police protecting the
05:43business which the triad owns. And they working together. But after the 70s, the police department
05:53and after the independent commissioner of corruption department, and then a lot of
05:59high-ranked police officers, they got arrested. They put it in a prison for a long time until
06:06after 1997. 1997, the China government take over Hong Kong and China government is very
06:14strict to triad. So I don't think they still have it right now. No.
06:19I will give this rating of 8. It's 80% close to the real life.
06:34That's impossible. How you going to use a machine gun and shoot in the highway? You
06:37think the police, what, they all went home? Nobody working? There are civilians around
06:44you. And it's daytime. Impossible to do that.
06:57For the triad working with the motorcycle club, I think it's very common.
07:04It's if you shut down the Irish pipeline and my family take control over the guns in Northern
07:09California. In the real life, a triad member will not
07:15try to take over some other gang's business. But the first thing is, we always like cooperate
07:24first. Like, see, can we like work together to expand the business instead of fighting
07:31each other? This one, I'm going to rate it 5.
07:36This is funny. In real life, never going to happen like this.
07:45In this movie here, Jack Lee is the triad negotiator expert. But he was martial art
07:51expert also. In the Hong Kong Triad Society, negotiator
07:57expert, yes, there's a position for that. It's 4-1-5, white paper fan. But for negotiator
08:05expert and martial art expert, that's two different things. Only 4-2-6, the general,
08:15they have a martial art expert. It's different.
08:22Okay, I can tell you the truth. In the 80s, 70s to 80s and beginning of 90s, the nightclub
08:30business is going like crazy. A lot of new nightclubs opened. They need a lot of security.
08:37So at that time, yeah, a lot of triad members, they learned a little bit of kung fu. And
08:44because it's easy for them to get a job in the nightclub, that's true.
08:49This one, I would rate it like 6 for a position like Jack Lee. I don't think in real life
08:58got this kind of person and doing both things.
09:09This is a classic movie. Counterfeit money for the triad to deal with is not that often
09:17because Hong Kong, they don't have that kind of technology to make counterfeit money. Only
09:24in mainland China. With doing a large amount deal like this in Hong Kong, it will happen
09:33but not that often. It's not that common.
09:41I actually saw someone doing that, using a $100 bill and smoke a cigarette, a real one,
09:47not the counterfeit. They're shooting each other in the street like this in Hong Kong.
09:55I never saw it before. The only time they will carry a pistol is when they are doing
10:02a large scale crime, like robbery a band, robbery a jewelry store, something like that.
10:10In the normal day, they're never going to carry a gun on the street. At my time in Hong
10:14Kong, the movie industry is controlling by triad. You want to get interest from this
10:24area, you have to obey their order. If you don't, you cannot stay there. For this movie,
10:32this scene, by that time was the triad got the most power in the movie industry. So a
10:39lot of movie, I can tell you like 60-70% is real. This one, I will rate it an 8.
10:55For this scene here, try to elect a dragon head in American. The bigger boss, we call
11:03it dragon head. Yes. All position, we have a number. For the dragon head, we call it
11:094-8-9. The second level higher is the 4-3-8. And then is 4-2-6. 4-2-6, we call Westlake.
11:19He's a general. At my time, my position is 4-2-6, Westlake. And then is 4-1-5. 4-1-5
11:26is white paper fan. He's a negotiation expert. Below it is 49. 49 is regular soldier. Below
11:3749, those members don't have a number. We call it bull lantern. You can understand that
11:44they are student. They are not regular member yet. In the triad society, high-winded position
11:56for a woman, yes. I'm at the highest level is white paper fan.
12:08Hong Kong got a lot of different triad. They all have their own system. Some of them elected
12:16like this, which is some of them is not. Like this scene, a Taiwan triad want to keep their
12:22family safe and they move to LA. Triads in Taiwan is very common because the first generation
12:30of triad is from KMT. They flew to Taiwan and Asian area. So a lot of triad, first generation
12:42triad member, they went to Taiwan. This one, I will wait it in seven because in the real
12:48life, it will happen.
12:57Because I'm a former Chinatown gangster, I can tell you. I've been go to this kind of
13:06action a lot of time. We never use bomb to bomb a store. That's ridiculous. That's your
13:13profit. You bomb it. You destroy it. Second, when you shoot someone, after shooting, you're
13:19not going to stand there. You're not going to stay there and keep talking. And the shooting
13:24in Chinatown is in New York City, Chinatown because the street used to be my territory.
13:32In my time, a Tong association against another Tong association, that's common. Chinatown,
13:50the area is like this and so many association over there. So if you step in people's territory
13:58and we'll start a war. I think it's the 1780 in the past. And we always like, almost every
14:09day, we will get into the shooting, fighting, almost every day. For the Tong association
14:15in the United States, they are eager for new immigrant to helping them to get a fresh life.
14:27This story is about a detective. It's a corrupting detective. He's getting money from the gang
14:40group and protect their business, which is true story. And I personally know the guy.
14:48The story, I tell you the story is real. Okay, like the scenes here, innocent people
15:01got killed. So I want to remind the young generation's people, in the gang life, it's
15:08a nightmare. You don't want to get into it. Why did I leave the gang? Because I don't
15:14want to die. Honestly. Okay. The last time I got shot, I got shot five times. Stay in
15:20the hospital after recovering. So I was thinking, that's it. That's the life for me. That's
15:25it. I got to change it. I give this one a rating of seven. Yeah, because the story is
15:32good. It's true at my time, there's a lot of gambling house in Chinatown. And I was
15:44for a cop who picking in the gambling house to bust the gambling house. In the real life,
15:50it's not like the movie. This one, the gambling house only got one door. The cop just break
15:56one door and then go straight to the gambling house. But in the real life, there's a people
16:0224 hour watching the CCTV. So when the cop come in the first door, he already saw it
16:10and tell everybody got out by the back door. Today, there were 43 gang arrests, three gambling
16:16parlors raided, six sweatshops busted. During the 80s, the reporter come down to Chinatown
16:22and do the report, a couple of large shooting, small thing like cracking down a massage parlor,
16:31cracking down a gambling house. I hardly see a reporter, only for large shooting. We had
16:37the same arrangement over a long period of time. No policeman ever go to gambling club.
16:45It's true that a lot of corruption cop at that time, yes. When I was there, we have
16:52to pay the cop salary every week. So even though a crackdown and we already knew before
17:00they come. But after the 90s, the FBI stripped the whole Chinatown and the Tong Association
17:09still exist in Chinatown, but they are not allowed to young people to go up anymore.
17:16That's why there's no more gang in Chinatown. This one, I would give them a nine. The story
17:22is real true. I can tell you that this scene is already 80% real. The producer only changed
17:38little bit the part of the ceremony and little work, almost same thing. You have to follow
17:45the guy, whatever he say, the pawn. The pawn, they are using the real one, but they just
17:51spit out a 50%. They cut the end of part. You have to use a needle to cut your finger
18:09and get a drip of blood inside a bowl of wine, white wines, and everybody have to get a sip
18:16of blood. That's before. But now, after the HIV or whatever, so they cancel it. They
18:27don't have this part no more.
18:35The hand sign they are doing, that's your position. Everybody got different hand sign
18:41and that mean they are in which position. I will rate this one a nine. It's 90% in the
18:49real life true.
18:57For this scene, they're shooting this in San Francisco. Even the gang in San Francisco,
19:03they hardly use gun because San Francisco police was very, very strict. Long times before
19:10there's an incident happening in a Golden Dragon restaurant, somebody using a machine
19:16gun and doing a shootout over there. After that incident, San Francisco police will be
19:23very strict for the gang.
19:29For my experience, the equestrian never, never fight with the gang right here. In my time,
19:37I have one work with them open a casino in New York, but never fighting each other. Only
19:44in the movie, I give him a five.
19:53This scene is very common in Hong Kong. Egyptian businessman want to open a nightclub and they
20:01have to get a triad to back them up. So, when I in Hong Kong, the dragon head will approach
20:10which nightclub I go to collect each month. So, I only have to go over there, collect
20:16the money once a month because I always back and forth, back and forth. I do not belong
20:20to Hong Kong, I belong to New York.
20:23Ok, cheers.
20:30In the real life, you are a person like this, to act like this, I think the next day the police
20:36going to arrest you. You are gone. The way they talk is very close to the real triad
20:43member, that's why I give them an eight.
20:52Ok, cheers.