Shanghai, 1940s. The gangs run everything and only the slums are safe from organized crime, mainly because there's no profit to be had. Sing is a low-life hustler who is determined - as a result of a childhood humiliation that taught him good guys never win - to be a badass gangster. Sadly, Sing is the one guy in pre-revolutionary China who can't do Kung Fu.
In order to squeeze pennies out
