1974 · crime · shaw-brothers · social
The Tea House
Directed by Kuei Chih-hung1h 36m1974
Chen Kuan-Tai is Big Brother Cheng, a former refugee who runs a local teahouse in Hong Kong. Respected by his peers, Big Brother Cheng runs the teahouse - and unofficially the neighborhood - with a firm righteous hand. However, when the triads come calling, Big Brother Cheng finds out respect and common decency may not be enough. The triads use underage kids to terrorize the teahouse, and since the law won't do anything, Big Brother Cheng may have to step in and take care of it himself!
Our read: The Tea House (1974) reads as a sombre, kinetic, grounded crime · shaw-brothers · social entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook.
Sombre, kinetic, measured crime / shaw-brothers, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, measured.
- sombre
- brisk
- intense
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