Hong Kong Films: I Won the Lottery on a Slot Machine and Became a Mogul Through Filmmaking

After transmigrating to Hong Kong Island in the 1980s, Wu Xiao Zu starts out as nothing but a bottom-rung 49er in the Wo Hop To triad, with only a secondhand slot machine to his name. He earns five points a day, which can be exchanged for random rewards in four colors: white, blue, purple, and red. They range from a toothbrush pistol to the legal queen, Eri Faye, from the killer Abu to Gin of the Black Organization, plus 200 loyal death warriors.

Others make their way in the gangs by fighting. He does it by making erotic films. He teams up with Jimmy to turn classic movies from his past life into real, live-fire visual nukes, earning two million a month. Kwun of the Hung Hing gang is jealous and sends people to trash his club, threatening to make him crawl to Mong Kok and explain himself.

Wu Xiao Zu leans back on a leather sofa and exhales cigar smoke.