Wai tan long she

The literal translation of the title of this movie is: The dragon and the snakes at the Foreign Beach.

The Foreign Beach is a strip of land that was the center of prosperity at Shanghai since the overthrown of the Qing dynasty, all the way until the outbreak of World War II, and the local gangsters were in constant battle to control it.

This movie depicts accurately about the gang wars of the pre-World War II era, but it certainly by no means the Chinese version of Boyz N the Hood. The reason is that there is absolutely nothing in the movie to urge people to do good and for this reason, it was deeply disliked by Chinese parents.