MovieChat Forums > Mou gaan dou (2002) Discussion > valet parking...

valet parking...

posted 12 years ago by kissofjudas
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can someone explain how parking cars has anything to do with organized crime, or why people were killed over parking cars?

hahaha. i was certain that this was a mistranslation, so i looked for a bunch of different subtitles. then became confused. to the point where i showed the scene (the start of the movie. appx 3-4 minutes in) to a buddy of mine (who's chinese), without subtitles, asking him to translate it. he (straight-faced) said it was about parking cars. and that some of their brothers were killed and yada, yada... and he thought nothing weird about it.

so i'm baffled. what the *beep* is/was going on in china/hong kong, where valet parking = organized crime empires?

can anyone shed some light on this? my mind is BLOOOOOWN.

[–] wongsaur 12 years ago

Certain occupations and industries are controlled or influenced by organized crime. Think massage parlors, pirated music and movies, etc.

Parking is a lucrative cash business that involves "turf," i.e. territory. Parking spaces are few in dense urban areas (HK, SF, NYC for example). Privately owned spaces can be priced according to supply and demand at different locations and can change at any time. Factor in these variables into the rate and also the potential for making $ off tips. Plus there are plenty of ways to fleece customers when they surrender their keys to the valet or the lot attendant. Think of the many possibilities, e.g. extortion, insurance scams, kidnapping, theft, vandalism, and many other criminal enterprises.

Similar businesses are auto repair garages, cabs and jitney buses. These businesses regularly show up in HK movies as places where a less than honest buck can be made.