A new film by Martin Scorsese, entitled Revenge of the Green Dragons documents the true story of Chinese immigrants, who find themselves in the United States and become members of one of Chinatown’s most notorious gangs, the Green Dragons. The gang, based in Queens, New York becomes involved with a range of illegal activities such as drug trafficking and smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants into the United States.
The actual story broke back in 1992, when the New Yorker magazine published an article by Fredric Dannen, entitled Revenge of the Green Dragons. The article chronicled the events surrounding immigrants from Asia who arrived in the 1980s and joined this dangerous gang. The article shares details about the gang member’s family members and stories surrounding some of the victims of their violent rampages. The new film is said to be based on the events detailed in the article.
The year after the story was first published, further attention was drawn to the Chinese illegal smuggling issue in 1993, when a cargo ship, the Golden Venture, crashed on a New York shore. Within the hull of that ship hundreds of illegal immigrants from China were found on board packed together in cramped and inhumane conditions, with the hope of safely entering the United States. This was just one of many cargo liners to smuggle people into the United States from Asia, orchestrated by Chinese-based gangs in the New York City area.
The time worn classic theme of indigent immigrants coming to the United States to make a better life for themselves is ever present in the film. The hope of these immigrants that they might have an opportunity for advancement which could never be achieved in their home country is the driving force that allows these individuals to pursue this dream by any means possible. They risk their health and even their lives to take a voyage to the United States that can last several months while they exist in dire conditions, just for that chance.
However, the unscrupulous human traffickers, called Snakeheads, who make their passage happen, charge these immigrants tens of thousands of dollars and upwards for their voyage. This poor immigrants have to work the rest of their lives in slave labor factories or in prostitution here in order to pay their debt. These immigrants are undocumented and for the most part uneducated. They are fearful and have no trust in government officials, therefore, they stay underground for the most part for fear of being placed in deportation proceedings.
The co-director of the film, Andrew Lau stated that he wanted to movie to speak to what happens to these Asian immigrants when they get to the United States and the life they wind up with is not what they imagined. To this end, he visited some of the sweat shops and labor factories surrounding Chinatown in New York City. Some of these individuals he interviewed, he wound up offering spots as extras in the film.
The one question the co-director asked these individuals repeatedly was, if it was worth what they went through to get here. He reported that unfortunately, overwhelmingly the answer was an unequivocal NO.
