Director Abel Ferrara hit's the street's with this modern take on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet set amongst waring Italian and Chinese gangs… this is more so the younger generation… as the much older and wiser mafia / triad figures set out for peace so they don't draw unwanted attention from the man in blue. However these young-guns make it a battleground and caught between it is two love-struck lovers; a Chinese girl Tayn-Hwa and Italian lad Tony Monte. They don't care about colour or race, despite what's happening all around them and what it could do to them or even loved ones.

There's no real surprises to the old hat, if simply low-key material (which was penned by Ferrara's collaborator Nicholas St. John), as we pretty much know how this dangerous story plays out and eventually finishes, however director Ferrara has a gritty, but devoted style and upbeat tempo that's uniquely his own that elevates the conventional framework with his striking eye for a sense of place and powerfully lasting imagery that's uncompromising. He does more than just direct from the screenplay. The concentration on the tough, smoky urban setting (with excellent location photography of New York's bordering neighbourhoods Chinatown and little Italy), helps build a seedy atmosphere where hatred and violence is simply waiting to boil over, as obsession and pride becomes a death wish. Ferrara polarises it very well, especially the conflict not between (which is still quite blistering), but within the same races seeking out honour in who they are ---- this is where it was at its strongest, because the forbidden love angle (while important to the plot's progression) did stall and take away from some of the underlining tension. Although outside of its pushy race card slant, it does feel like it's just building up these explosive acts to glorify its foreseeable conclusion. Joe Delia's melancholy score fits in perfectly.

The performances are down-to-earth and genuinely projected by its cast. Richard Panebianco and Sari Chang are sympathetically touching as the two lovebirds. An admirable James Russo and especially a hot-headed David Caruso bring an unstoppable intensity to their roles. Russell Wong is quite laid-back in a sound performance, in his quest to please his elders by controlling his gang and that of his wayward sister. Journeyman actor James Hong pops up, as well as Robert Miano as heavies.

You might call it lesser Ferrara compared to his other works, but it's involving and efficiently handled with his trademark raw and brutal edge shining through.

It should be given that Abel Ferrara and his writer Nicholas St. John knew what they were doing with China Girl. The influence of Romeo & Juliet would be first to come to mind, but I think it was even more-so West Side Story that must have loomed in their minds. Some of the influence is so painfully obvious as to seem like a rip-off (the main male character in love is even named Tony), and on a more immediate level of the period- the good ol' mid 1980's- things like hip-hop, synth-dance music, and of course Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' are inter-connected with the film. I almost expected in some of these gang-fight scenes to hear Eddie Van Halen's wicked guitar solo to come up on the soundtrack.

Oh, Ferrara does have his moments with the material, which is very basically about turf war between the Chinese in Chinatown and the Italians in Little Italy, with Canal street as the dividing line. There is some interest in how the conflict comes up when a Chinese restaurant pops up on the side of Little Italy - and yet the owner doesn't want to pay the usual protection fee to the Chinese gang just because he's Chinese. This spurs on some major problems, violence, and of course Tony and Tyan-Hwa at the center.

A flaw in the film is that we're never really sure why the two lovebirds are even in love with each other. Again, like Robbins/Wise's film, they spot each other from across the dance hall and have a dance, and their curiosity in each other, the ol' 'love-at-first-sight' thing. But it doesn't really gel as well with the gritty realism and street toughness of the rest of the picture; when Tony and Tyan-Hwa give each other sweet nothings ("How do you say 'I love you in Italian?" "How do you say it in Chinese?") it's some of the corniest material you've never seen. It's not that the actors are bad in their parts- the actress playing Tyan-Hwa has some tenderness to her that is nice for the production.

But there's some inconsistency with how the story flows, sometimes scene to scene. Here and there a memorable moment happens (RUN DMC's Walk This Way is the only thing to never get dated, for a great dance number), and the fighting scenes are well staged and intense. There's a few fascinating supporting or minor roles, like James Hong as Gung Tu, the head of the Chinese crime family who, most wisely, wants just peace and quiet between the rivals. And yet there's also some acting and writing that just doesn't work, period (what, for example, is David Caruso, a red-haired Irish guy, doing with a bunch of Italianos in this story, good as he might be), and the ending, while appropriately tragic and well-staged, doesn't fit the rest of the time Ferrara's after.

It's as if, basically, Ferrara decided to make his comment on West Side Story, give it some importance in a present-time setting of 1987, and the little-seen angle of Chinese-vs-Italian gangs, and make it rougher, less cheesy than its influences. But really, who wants realism when you've got love-at-first-sight? It's an interesting experiment that is a very mixed bag.