Ranked third on Taiwan's most-wanted list is not a title a certain kind of criminal can live with — "The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon" is a 2023 crime drama about a gangster determined to climb to the top of a list most people spend their lives trying to stay off.

What is The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon about?

Ethan Juan plays a small-time hood whose pride is wounded the moment he learns he only ranks third among Taiwan's most wanted criminals, and the film follows his escalating, often darkly funny campaign to outdo the two men ahead of him. Director Wong Ching-Po builds the story around Taiwan's underworld in a way that treats gang hierarchy less as backdrop and more as the whole engine of the plot — every scheme, betrayal, and alliance is measured against where it lands him on that list. Ben Yuen Foo-Wah, Chen Yi-Wen, and Gingle Wang fill out a supporting cast of rivals, allies, and people caught in the blast radius of one man's obsession with his own reputation, while Cherry Hsieh, Lee-Zen Lee, Troy Liu, and Peggy Tseng round out an ensemble spanning the criminal world he's trying to conquer.

About the cast

Ethan Juan leads the film as the fugitive chasing his own infamy, with Ben Yuen Foo-Wah, Chen Yi-Wen, and Gingle Wang playing the figures who complicate his path upward through the ranks. Cherry Hsieh, Lee-Zen Lee, Troy Liu, and Peggy Tseng complete a cast built to populate a criminal underworld with real texture rather than interchangeable henchmen.

Context & significance

Wong Ching-Po directs a crime drama rooted in Taiwan's gang culture, and the film leans into genre conventions — shifting loyalties, violent set pieces, a protagonist whose logic only makes sense from inside his own head — while keeping its focus tightly on one man's singular, absurd goal. At 134 minutes, it has room to build out a full criminal ecosystem around its central chase for status.

Watching The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon on Ktime

"The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon" streams on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, part of a Farsi-first viewing experience for the Iranian diaspora. Watching requires a free K-Time account login; this page is free to browse without one.