Cassavetes is known for his aversion to American cinematic formulas in the name of finding the truth behind human behavior in showing them in their pathetic bareness unclad by gloss. In films like A Woman Under the Influence, Faces, and Shadows, the subject matter is sliced directly from life itself, so one wouldn't be so surprised to see a capsule of realistic human behavior. But The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a gangster film.<br /><br />The portrayal of Cosmo Vitelli in regard to his debts is crushingly pitiful, as he seems like an enslaved puppy in the incompatible guise of a cocky New York nightclub owner. Cassavetes really wants us to hate the loan sharks with a viral passion.<br /><br />If the film would not spend so much inexplicable time on Vitelli's nightclub acts, it would hit as hard as most of Cassavetes's other films, what with the grittiest possible atmosphere, reminding one of the old smoke-filled, classically grimy New York City that Minnie and Moskowitz wonderfully depicted in the the film's early house and apartment scenes.