Sang

"Put your gun down, fight like a man!"

- Sang's last words to Carter when he's about to fight Carter

Sang was the right-hand man of Juntao and the secondary antagonist in Rush Hour. He is portrayed by Ken Leung.

Rush Hour (1998)
Sang first appears in the opening sequence of the film. He is at the shipping bar-warf near Hong Kong harbor, where the rest of Juntao's men are gathering up some stolen artifacts representing years of China's heritage. Hong Kong Police Force Detective Inspector Lee, who is leading a raid in an attempt to find and arrest Juntao, confronts Sang and another henchman. At gunpoint, he demands to know where Juntao is, but Sang replied that Juntao is everywhere. He challenges Lee to a fight, but Lee ordered him to surrender. He then challenges him to shoot him, with Lee hesitating. As he again tells Lee to shoot him, he pushes a henchman towards Lee and escapes. Lee subdues the man and chases after Sang, who manages to escape on a boat.

Later, while Consul Han's daughter, Soo-Yung was on her way to her first day of being at an American school, the car was stopped by Sang, who was disguised as a police officer. When Soo-Yung's driver asked if there was a problem, Sang casually replied that there was no problem, "just rush hour", and then shot both the driver and her bodyguard. While Soo-Yung Han is screaming from shock and fear for her life, Sang then calmly walked to where she was sitting in the backseat of the car, opened the car door and tried to grab her, but she kicked him back, hit him in the face with her backpack, and then whacked him in the face with her necklace, cutting the corner of his eye. While Sang was distracted from the pain, Soo-Yung Han managed to escape from the car by opening the car door on the right side and then fleeing. Sang then stood by the car, angrily watching her run away.

However, Soo-Yung's attempt to escape was then cut short as she is picked up by Sang's fellow henchman after he chased her on a motorcycle; after kicking him in the head while being picked up by another man, she was shoved into a van and the door closed behind her.

Sang phones the consulate later that night, only to find himself talking to L.A.P.D Detective James Carter, whom he mistakes for an FBI agent, with Carter playing along. Carter takes up Sang's ransom demand and poorly arranges a drop.

When the FBI arrive at the agreed drop point, several agents go up to the top floor to arrest Sang, only to find a ringing phone. When they pick it up to answer, a bomb is detonated, killing the agents. Sang then came out of a hiding place and Lee chases him to an alley, where Sang manages to climb up to a building. He then attacked Lee with an axe, but fled as soon as he heard Carter calling for Lee. Sang continued to flee and even threw the axe which narrowly misses Lee and hits the wall next to Carter. Sang then nearly fell through a gap in the bridge of the building, dropping a remote detonator in the process. When Lee tried to follow he gets his foot stuck while picking up the detonator. Carter catches up to Lee only for them to fall through the bridge and on to the ground. A car nearly hits them but they move out of the way. Carter gets up and shoots at the back window of the car, which Sang escapes in. Lee and Carter soon learn from Carter's colleague, Detective Tania Johnson, that the detonator was a remote that can blow up explosives, like C4, which was the explosive Carter had not recovered while arresting bomb maker Clive Cobb earlier in the film. This brings them to Clive, where they learn from him that Juntao was behind the kidnapping of Soo-Yung.

Later, Sang hides out at the Foo Chow resturaunt in Chinatown, telling the Consul by phone to take the ransom money to the alley behind the resturaunt. Later, Carter enters the resturaunt, posing as a lawyer, and asks to speak to Juntao. Sang sees him on the security camera and orders his henchmen to get Carter. Juntao tells him to hold it and he is revealed as Thomas Griffin, Consul Han's friend and the former British ruler of Hong Kong. He sees Lee on a security monitor and orders them to get Soo-Yung out of the building. He then tells Sang to make sure that Lee and Carter don't leave the resturaunt alive.

Carter is brought up to meet with Sang and his men. Carter suddenly sees Griffin on the security monitor outside the resturaunt but does not know that he's Juntao. Sang closes the monitor and he and his men menacingly stare down Carter. When asked why there are so quiet, he is pushed forward and a man kicks him. Carter tells the guy that it was childish. He pretend to claims that he's looking for Juntao but Sang pulls his gun on him. Carter says if he's going to kill him to put the gun down and fight him like a man. Before Carter would fight him another man kick's him in the chin. Carter does his famous line "which one of ya'll kick me?" The henchman in front of him repiles "me". Carter briefly fights the men before he is kicked over a couch by the same man. While the henchman are checking him Sang aproaches Carter and sees the FBI badge on his belt buckle revealing to him that Carter was the man he was on the phone with earlier. He then throws him a hankerchief and tells him to wipe himself off because he's bleeding (from his nose). Before Sang leaves he does the cut throat gesture as if he's ordering them to kill Carter. Lee arrives and enters the room disguised as a waiter from the resturaunt. At Carter sugguestion earlier he pretends to be with the L.A.P.D. before he drops the badge in embarrassment. Lee then rescues Carter by fighting the men before they are able to escape.

Sang later phoned the Consul, angrily telling him that the ransom has been increased from $50 million to $70 million, and threatened to kill Soo-Yung if anything else goes wrong. Disgraced and guilt-ridden, Lee and Carter are ordered off the investigation, and Lee is informed that he will be sent back to Hong Kong. Carter refuses to drop the case and confronts Lee on his plane to enlist his help, and the two men decide to save Soo-Yung together.

At the Los Angeles Convention Center where the ransom is being delivered in the upstairs control room, Sang appears at the event dressed as a waiter and he and Griffin exchange looks. Soon Carter recognizes Griffin from Chinatown and creates a scene where he warns the spectators about a threat of a bomb in the building and tells them to evacuate. In the confusion, Lee sees Sang handing Griffin a detonator identical to the one he and Carter had previously recovered, deducing that Griffin and Juntao are one and the same.

Griffin/Juntao then threatens to detonate a bomb vest attached to Soo Yung if the delivery is interrupted. During the stand-off, however, Carter manages to sneak out and locate Soo Yung. Carter proceeds to take the vest off her, but Soo Yung tells him that she heard them say that the vest will go off if anyone tries to take it off incorrectly. Carter then drives the van into the building and brings the bomb vest within range to kill everyone inside the exhibition.

After a gunfight breaks out, Lee and Johnson climb into the back of the van and Johnson manages to get the vest off Soo-Yung, but tells Lee that it still can be set off with the remote. Lee then takes the vest and pursues Griffin. Meanwhile, Griffin goes up to the upstairs control room and shoots the agents up there, including Warren Russ. He then takes the briefcase with the money and leaves.

Death


A few moments later, Sang also goes into the control room and starts putting more of the ransom money into another briefcase to take it along with him. Then Russ, who has survived being shot by Griffin, groans in pain, and Sang turns his gun on him. Just as he is about to shoot Russ, he is interrupted by Carter, who tells him that he is alone. Sang then threatens to kill Russ, but Carter tells him to do so, saying that he never liked Russ (because of the way he suspended him from the assignment for getting in the way of getting Soo-Yung back). Unmoved by this, Sang decides to challenge Carter by 'fighting like men', echoing Carter's words earlier. Carter agrees, but as both men put their guns down as the same time, they bring out their alternative guns to shoot each other. Fortunately, Carter proves to be quicker and shoots Sang in the process, killing him. Carter then lays out a final insult on the deceased Sang by throwing a handkerchief on his corpse, telling him, "Wipe yourself off, man. You dead."

Trivia

 * Sang was Juntao's right hand man and presumably one of his most trusted henchmen.


 * He developed a rivalry with Carter during the film (after having been Lee's main rival toward the beginning of the movie).


 * There is history between Lee and Sang as Lee began investigating Juntao's criminal activites and keeping track of Sang prior to the first film.


 * The cut on the corner of Sang's eye came from when Soo-Yung had hit him with her necklace as he first attempted to kidnap her.


 * Out of all villains of the film series, Sang is the only one to get actually killed by Carter.


 * It is unknown how Sang had disguised himself as an LAPD officer and was driving the police cruiser to intercept the car transporting Soo-Yung to school. He presumably killed a police officer stole his uniform and stole the cruiser. He also tracked the car transporting Soo-Yung using the police scanner.


 * The scene where Lee confronts Sang at the harbor with Sang encourages Lee to shoot him and Lee hesitating is referenced in Rush Hour 3 when Lee faces Kenji in the alley.


 * The character of Jawlong from the first episode of the TV series is based on Sang.


 * He is the only the henchman to be a male. The rest are female henchwomen.


 * Sang is the first Triad henchman appearing in the Rush Hour series. The second was Hu Li (in Rush Hour 2) and Jasmine was the third and final, appearing in Rush Hour 3.