Once a Gangster

In this sprawling Hong Kong crime saga, power, loyalty, and cunning collide as a street gang’s fortunes hinge on a single discovery. The gang leader Kerosene [Alex Fong Chung-Sun] spots a new recruit with remarkable culinary talent and bestows him with the nicknameRoast Pork [Jordan Chan Siu-Chun], turning a gifted cook into a valuable asset under the gang’s umbrella. As the years roll by, Roast Pork’s rise becomes entwined with the criminal empire’s fate: Kerosene’s grip tightens, and a chain of restaurants begins to symbolize the gang’s reach, all controlled by Roast Pork himself.

But the position of don is fragile, and personal pressures mount. Roast Pork’s wife pushes for a clean break from the gang, hoping a life outside crime can begin—but the shadow of debt looms large. Kerosene’s crushing debts become Roast Pork’s burden to bear, prompting a drastic idea: pass the don’s mantle to someone else who can shoulder the financial burden while Roast Pork tries to protect those he loves. When Scissors [Conroy Chan Chi-Chung] sets his sights on the top spot, the crew’s fear grows, because his closest ally Yan [Wilfred Lau Ho-Lung] is a known police informant, and trust within the ranks frays at the edges.

Meanwhile, Kerosene continues to push for Roast Pork to ascend again, yet Roast Pork’s wife remains resolute in opposing that path. In a bold, desperate move, Roast Pork stages a dramatic act—setting a small fire on the sidewalk in front of a bank to provoke arrest and miss an impending election—but the plan backfires in a telling way: other gang members step forward to shoulder the consequences and ensure Roast Pork’s escape, revealing the tangled loyalties that bind this crew.

Intertwined with these power plays is Lady Pearl [Candice Yu On-On], the granddaughter of the gang’s founder Iron Bodyguard, who rejects Roast Pork’s nomination as the next Don. She believes the position was promised to her son Swallow [Pakho Chau] by Uncle Tsa [Samuel Kwok Fung] in exchange for Swallow serving a lengthy sentence for a gang killing. Uncle Tsa’s whispered rule—that the next Don should be the one who retrieves the gang’s symbolic Dragon Tail Baton from the police—puts Swallow in direct competition with Roast Pork, even as Swallow Yearns for college and a life beyond crime. Yet his dreams are tangled with family expectations and the gang’s needs, and his path is repeatedly sabotaged by loyal underlings and a mother who depends on his presence for both protection and a reckless, survival-driven existence.

To complicate matters further, Roast Pork decides to counterfeit the symbol itself, paying for fake Dragon Tail Batons carved from the wood of an antique chair. The counterfeit batons circulate and change hands as rival factions maneuver for the top spot, each side believing the other holds the genuine article. When both Roast Pork and Swallow arrive at the gang’s headquarters with their respective Dragon Tail Baton, Uncle Tsa faces a memory lapse and cannot distinguish the real one. The standoff escalates into a brutal confrontation as they shoot and kill each other in a bid to claim the Don’s title.

Into this chaos steps Scissors, arriving with his own Dragon Tail Baton and seizing the throne as the new Don. Yet the tale doesn’t end with a victory lap: after assuming power, Scissors is drawn into the web of deception that has defined Roast Pork’s era. Roast Pork and Swallow reveal to Pearl that they have faked their deaths, a revelation that shakes the gang’s foundations. The drama culminates with Yan and the police closing in on the scene, leading to the arrest of Scissors—the man who was crowned Don—while Roast Pork’s and Swallow’s ruse leaves the door open for new chapters in this ongoing, dangerous game of power.

This story stands as a dense tapestry of ambition, family, and the costs of loyalty, where a single nickname can set off a cascade of choices that redefine a gang’s legacy. The characters move through a maze of manipulation, debt, and strategic deceit, each driven by personal code and the desperate desire to control both destiny and danger in a world where yesterday’s rules quickly become today’s casualties.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 17:00