Chinatown is of the film noir genre and although it was made in the seventies, its story is set in the period when many film noirs were made. The setting is Los Angeles, where water is money because of its desert location. The basic plot surrounds water’s value to the city of Los Angeles. Whomever controls the water has power and can generate insane wealth merely by choosing where and when water goes. In fact, California today is still very much subject to both power corruption (Enron making profits by shifting power from one state to another) and insane land valuations being propped up by the highest bidder.

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