Line #98 Main/OpiumDen


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4	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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8	[[quoteright:303:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/opiumden4_7300.jpg]]
9	[[caption-width-right:303:A place where your life goes up in smoke.]]
10
11	->She messed around with a bloke named Smokey\
12	She loved him, though he was cokey\
13	He took her down to Chinatown\
14	And showed her how to kick that gong around
15	-->-- "Minnie the Moocher", Music/CabCalloway
16
17	The door opens into warm darkness. The air is filled with smoke, its bitter-sweet scent undercut by a faint stink of sweat and bile. An attendant scurries toward you, seemingly out of nowhere, bearing a pipe and a pill of opium.
18
19	You settle into the lower level of a two-tiered bunk much like a train sleeping compartment. Declining to close the curtain -- that is for those already drugged to either stupefaction or hypersensitivity -- you cast your eyes about the room as the first breaths of hot vapor connect with your lungs. Around you are men and women of every conceivable race and class, some silent in contemplation of their private fantasies, others talking to or amongst themselves in strange accents and hushed tones. They coexist in a peaceful single-mindedness that would be the envy of church or state.
20
21	This is not a luxurious place, not a picture-postcard place in red and gilt. The wooden walls know neither paint nor plaster; the floor is grimy; the air is close. But to the habitué, it is paradise.
22
23	The image of the opium den is often romanticized, probably because few such places still exist. The media are more realistic in portraying other places where drug users gather to get high, such as "shooting galleries" (where addicts gather to inject drugs, usually heroin) and crack houses.
24
25	Opium use was known as "kicking the gong (around)", thus explaining the use of that phrase in many jazz songs.
26
27	Historically associated with Chinese culture, but not all are from that area. Limehouse, in UsefulNotes/{{London}}, was [[http://eastlondonhistory.com/chinatown-in-limehouse/ not actually that bad at all]] (the actual reason for the prevalence of this trope is, to cut a long story short, that in the 1800s the British virtually got everyone in China hooked on opium because [[BritsLoveTea the Chinese had a lot of stuff]] the [[UsefulNotes/TeaAndTeaCulture British wanted to buy]], but the British had nearly nothing the Chinese wanted).
28
29	Not to be confused with Opus Dei.
30
31	See also FriendlyLocalChinatown and YellowPeril.
32	----
33	!!Examples
34
35	[[foldercontrol]]
36
37	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
38	* [[BewareTheSillyOnes Lau]] runs one of these in ''Manga/BlackButler''. The audience and Ciel enter it briefly at the beginning of, predictably, the opium arc.
39	* Granny Hao, Minnie May's old associate and underworld contact runs one of these off screen in ''Manga/GunsmithCats''. She also provides all sorts of highly effective Chinese herb remedies as a side business, that rival synthetic drugs in their effectiveness.
40	* ''Anime/NightRaid1931'': In "Devil of the Opium Den", Sakurai orders the group to investigate an opium den which is said to be a hideout of spies. However, something goes wrong with Yukina's abilities. As a result, she tries to figure out the events that had happened when she entered the den.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Comic Books]]
44	* Creator/PeterDavid's ''Comicbook/{{Fallen Angel\|2003}}'' has an arc where Lee smokes opium in a hookah in Asia Minor's place.
45	* In ''ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist'', Orson Randall suppressed his chi by abusing opium, concealing his existence from those hunting the renegade Iron Fist.
46	* In the beginning of ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' comic, Alan Quatermain is in an opium den.
47	** Towards the end he has to enter another one, and nearly relapses.
48	* Where The Mandarin was born, according to the ''[[ComicBook/IronMan Invincible Iron Man]]'' annual.
49	* In ''Comicbook/TheSandman1989'', "Four Septembers and a January" features a belligerent sailor insisting that a Chinese San Fransiscan ''must'' know where to find an opium den. The person he's accosting just [[LanguageFluencyDenial claims not to speak English]].
50	* The Blue Lotus in the ''Comicbook/{{Tintin}}'' book of [[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus the same name]]. This being a more upmarket, well-painted example, frequented by businessmen and diplomats.
51	* The least romanticized version possible appears in ''Comicbook/YTheLastMan'' as [[spoiler:virtually the entire continent of Australia.]]
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
55	* Harvey Keitel's eponymous (and [[NoNameGiven nameless]]) ''Film/BadLieutenant'' visits a latter-day heroin den that otherwise fits the trope.
56	* ''Film/BlindWomansCurse'': A Japanese {{Yakuza}} boss has one of these where comely topless women smoke pipes, and apparently are used as prostitutes by the boss's mooks.
57	* In ''Film/{{Brick}}'', the area behind Carrow's Restaurant where Dode and the other stoners hang out is intended to reference this, as evidenced by the Asian-sounding musical cues.
58	* D.W. Griffith's tragedy ''Film/BrokenBlossoms'' takes place in Limehouse. The Chinese hero, a Buddhist missionary, falls on hard times and takes to the pipe.
59	* Eddie visits one toward the end of 1935's ''Film/TheCocaineFiends''.
60	* The ''Film/DoctorMabuse'' films feature a few ones. The titular Doctor finds his victims there, among corrupt millionaires and aristocrats.
61	* In ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'', the {{mockumentary}} on how to play dodgeball claims that the game was invented in Chinese Opium Dens.
62	* Lord Henry takes Dorian to one in ''Film/DorianGray''.
63	* Williams from ''Film/EnterTheDragon'' met his end in one of these at the hands of Mr. Han.
64	* Both the graphic novel and film versions of Creator/AlanMoore's ''Film/FromHell''.
65	* In ''Film/TheGoodTheBadTheWeird'', Tae-goo ends up in one, though he's really only looking for a room to spend the night.
66	* In ''Film/{{Inception}}'', the dream-den beneath Yusuf's shop seems intended to evoke this.
67	* ''Film/{{Indochine}}'': Eliane is a hard-driving plantation owner in Vietnam who likes to unwind by going to an opium den and getting high. She even introduces her younger lover to them (even though he's supposed to be police its traffic). He drags her out of a den at one point.
68	* ''Film/TheLetter'': The club that Mrs. Hammond lures Leslie to in the 1940 film is pretty clearly an opium den. In the 1929 film it's a little more vague.
69	* Another French film set in colonial Vietnam, ''Film/TheLover'', has the title character, a Chinese playboy, seeking solace in an opium den after his family force him to break off his affair with the Girl (an underage French girl) and enter an arranged marriage.
70	* In ''Film/TheMaskOfFuManchu'', Nayland manages to figure out that one of these actually hides the secret entrance to Fu Manchu's underground compound. He talks his way into the opium den and then enters the compound.
71	* ''Film/McCabeAndMrsMiller'': The film's downer ending has Miller zoned out in an opium den while [=McCabe=] lies shot dead with the falling snow blanketing over him.
72	* ''Film/TheMountie'': After accidentally killing a child, Grayling became an opium addict. A flashback shows him being roused by the hostess and led out of the den.
73	* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'' begins and ends with the guilt-ridden protagonist Noodles seeking solace in an opium den.
74	* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAndTheCaseOfTheSilkStocking'' opens with Holmes in an opium den.
75	* Where the vaudeville troupe is working in ''Film/TheSonOfTheSheik'' when Ahmed returns to rescue Yasmin. Lots of people lounging around smoking.
76	* Where Lady Leslane likes to spend time in ''Film/{{Spies}}''.
77	* In ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', Anthony passes by one while traveling through London.
78	* In ''Film/TheTerrorOfTheTongs'', the Red Dragon Tong operates a string of opium dens across Hong Kong. Captain Sale visits one of them in the course of his investigation.
79	* ''Film/ThoroughlyModernMillie'' has one of these that doubles as a prostitution/white slaving ring.
80	* There's a scene in an opium den in the action film ''Film/TianDi'', where the opium is imported by the corrupt military. Even a child is seen smoking on a joint.
81	* In ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', Curly Bill comes out of an opium den just before he shoot Marshall White. Later a character picks up an opium pipe in a den that instead turns out to be Wyatt Earp's peacemaker, with Wyatt Earp still attached to it.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Literature]]
85	* In ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'' by Creator/JulesVerne, the detective Fix gets Passepartout drunk and stoned in an opium den in Hong Kong in order to separate him from Phileas Fogg.
86	* The China Bone where Burnofsky goes in ''Literature/{{BZRK}}''.
87	* ''Literature/{{Drood}}'': While exploring the bowels of London (in more than one sense), Dickens and Wilkie stumble into two of these. Wilkie spends a fair amount of time in each later on.
88	* An illegal opium den is depicted in the comic novel ''The Fairy Gunmother'' (original title: ''La fée carabine'') by French author Daniel Pennac. It appears in a flashback set in the 1950's in Paris and is frequented by war veterans and [[spoiler: high-ranking government officials]]
89	* Opium dens are depicted in all their squalor in Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/TheFireRose'', which is set in California during the age of trains.
90	* Appears in at least one of the ''Literature/FuManchu'' stories as a front for the Devil Doctor's activities.
91	* Creator/RudyardKipling's short story "The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows" is a fictional memoir of an opium addict.
92	-->"Fung-Tching never told us why he called the place 'The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows.' [...] We used to find that out for ourselves."
93	* ''Literature/GemmaDoyle'': A particularly low point for [[spoiler:Gemma and her father]], especially given that the whole thing happens as a result of [[spoiler:Gemma trying to use magic to ''cure'' her father's laudanum addiction]].
94	* Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/TheMysteryOfEdwinDrood'' begins in one.
95	* Darius goes to one regularly in ''Literature/ThePhantomOfManhattan''.
96	* The title character in ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' frequents opium dens.
97	* Creator/AgathaChristie's "The Lost Mine" in ''Literature/PoirotsEarlyCases'' features one.
98	* In the Literature/SallyLockhart novel ''The Ruby in the Smoke'', Sally goes to an opium den to buy some opium for Matthew.
99	* One shows up in the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Man with the Twisted Lip". [[TheWatson Watson]] got sent to retrieve another man and finds Holmes there; Holmes must reassure Watson that he's only there undercover as part of an investigation and has not "added opium to the list of my vices".
100	* Creator/RobertEHoward 's Rhomerian "weird menace" novel ''Literature/SkullFace'' starts with protagonist Steven Costigan (a U.S. veteran of WWI) escaping the nightmares of the Argonne trench warfare in an Opium Den in London's Limehouse district.
101	* ''Litearture/{{Soul}}'': At one point Lavinia and Aloysius have to infiltrate one in order to retrieve [[spoiler:James]] who has gone on a bender.
102	* Jack Black's (not ''that'' Creator/JackBlack) ''You Can't Win'' is a ''brilliant'' memoir about his experiences as a train-hopping thief. He becomes addicted to opium and writes extensively about his experiences in these places.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
106	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In "[[Recap/AngelS05E22NotFadeAway Not Fade Away]]", Lorne and Lindsey ambush the Sahrvin clan inside what looks to be an opium bar.
107	* At the beginning of ''Series/TheBlacklist'' episode "Cape May", Raymond Reddington is seen emerging from behind the curtain of a smoking berth, presumably trying to smoke out his sorrows following Liz' death.
108	* In the second season of ''Series/TheBorgias'', Juan Borgia starts to frequent an opium den in Rome on the advice of his physician to cope with a leg wound and an STD. The drugs only seem to heighten his paranoia and mental breakdown.
109	* The "dive" that Sister Clarice frequents (and invites Amanda Greystone to) in ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' is fairly obviously a Fantastic Opium Den.
110	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]", Chang retreats to one to smoke opium to dull the pain as he dies after his leg is torn off by a giant rat.
111	* In ''Series/Dracula2013'', members of the Order of the Dragon AncientConspiracy go to a 19[[superscript:th]]-century London opium den, where a pair of {{Seers}} sell their services. Whether their liberal use of the product [[JunkieProphet helps them]] in their [[TrackingSpell scrying]] or is just a pastime is left unsaid, but [[spoiler:Dracula gives them a nasty PokeInTheThirdEye for their intrusion either way]].
112	* Chuck Bass (who else?) takes refuge at one of these when his father dies, on ''Series/GossipGirl''.
113	* ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'': A good friend of Duncan Macleod's spent the better part of an Old West {{Flashback}} in one of these, trying to deaden the panic he'd felt about his role in the neverending Game. He eventually moved on to other drugs as the decades passed, and was a cocaine addict when Duncan was forced to MercyKill him.
114	* In the series ''Series/TheKnick'' a Chinatown opium den is a favorite haunt of Dr. Thackery.
115	* One appears in an episode of ''Series/MagnumPI'', in the 1980s(!)
116	* In ''Series/MrRobot'' [[Recap/MrRobotS01E04 S 01 E 04]], Elliot's fever dream has him entering one to get a fix and quell his morphine withdrawal.
117	* The ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' episode "Pipe Dreamzz" initially opens in a rather nice room belonging to a white Orientalist professor, where he and his his students smoke opium. Later it features an opium den in Ontario's Chinatown, where one of the students ends up after the professor realises she's addicted and cuts her off.
118	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Ripper", Dr. Jack York spends most of his evenings getting high on absinthe and opium in an opium den. Since it doubles as a brothel, he often has sex with the prostitutes who work there.
119	* ''Series/PennyDreadful'': Vanessa and Ethan pass through one on the way to their confrontation with the vampires in "[[Recap/PennyDreadfulS1E1NightWork Night Work]]".
120	* TheAlcoholic anaesthetist John can often be found in one in ''Series/{{Quacks}}''.
121	* In ''Series/SerangoonRoad'', Sam's favorite bar has a back room for smoking opium.
122	* The Granada ''Series/SherlockHolmes'' of "[[Literature/SherlockHolmes The Dying Detective]]" (though ''not'' the original story). Another one appears in both versions of "The Crooked Man."
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Music]]
126	* Many a Music/CabCalloway song takes place in or refers to an OpiumDen, in which Minnie the Moocher and Smokey Joe 'kick the gong around'.
127	* ''Music/MenAtWork'': The last verse of "Down Under" has one of these.
128	-->Lying in a den in Bombay
129	-->With a slack jaw, and not much to say
130	* ''Music/{{Rush\|Band}}'': The travelers in "A Passage to Bangkok" from ''Music/TwentyOneTwelve'' visit a few of these.
131	-->Wreathed in smoke in Lebanon\
132	We burn the midnight oil\
133	The fragrance of Afghanistan\
134	Rewards a long night's toil
135	* Creator/SaxRohmer's musical monologue "[[https://monologues.co.uk/Bransby_Williams/Pigtail-of-Li-Lang-Fu.htm The Pigtail of Li-Fang-Fu]]" is a tale of small-scale YellowPeril and supernatural vengeance, taking place among the {{Addled Addict}}s who frequent an opium den.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Print Media]]
139	* One Creator/CharlesAddams cartoon depicts one of these in all its usual squalor, with a sign prominently posted on a wall stating its officially regulated occupancy limits.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Radio]]
143	* Pip sinks into dissolution and decay in ''Radio/BleakExpectations'' and ends up in an opium den, thinking it's a Chinese restaurant. "Would you like some complimentary prawn crack?"
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
147	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'': The city of Marienburg has a drug den called the Golden Lotus. Though opium is never mentioned, everything from the bunks to the spaced-out junkies is lifted straight out of the trope's most archetypal depictions.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Theatre]]
151	* ''Theatre/TheCruciferOfBlood'': After Ross is murdered, St. Claire takes refuge in an opium den. This is where the killer catches up with him.
152	* One is mentioned briefly in the musical ''Theatre/RideTheCyclone'' during "Noel's Lament" (a parody of the usual BadGirlSong) as part of the tragic downward spiral of the glamorous, bohemian prostitute of post-war France that [[CampGay Noel]] ''wished'' he could have been (instead of a lonely teenager working at a Taco Bell in a [[SmallTownBoredom dying mining town in Saskatchewan]]).
153	--> '''Noel''': So now I sell my love for opium\
154	In some rat-infested Chinese dive.\
155	At night I burn myself with cigarettes\
156	Just to somehow prove I'm still alive!\
157	Eight months later I catch typhoid flu.\
158	Cast out, I see the ugly light of day.
159	[[/folder]]
160
161	[[folder:Video Games]]
162	* ''VideoGame/EightyDays'': Passepartout will encounter these in China. As in the novel, Inspector Fix may lure him to one in Hong Kong, though this is avoidable.
163	* The Copper Coronet in ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGate Baldur's Gate II]]'' features a hidden black lotus den (at least, it does before you clean the place out).
164	* In the now lost Playdom interactive game ''VideoGame/{{Blackwood and Bell Mysteries}}'', when the group goes to Hong Kong, they have to search for clues in an opium den.
165	* ''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES'': The 2001 game's second level takes place in an opium den.
166	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' has a few similar establishments for the local FantasticDrug, Skooma:
167	** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'': There's a skooma den in Bravil, a down-on-its-luck city with some reputation as a WretchedHive. Clientele include a few {{Addled Addict}}s and the local Count's son, and it's an open (and widely disliked) secret among the locals.
168	** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' Dawnguard Expansion has the Redwater Den, which has a dark secret: the house skooma is drugged, and the proprietors haul unconscious victims to a jail cell in the basement to be turned into Vampire Thralls.
169	* In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'', "prisoner's honey" is a {{fantastic\|Drug}} version of opium, complete with shady and scandalous honey-dens.
170	* The Meat King's Party mission from ''VideoGame/HitmanContracts'' features an opium den where you can pose as an attendant and serve one of your targets an opium pipe before taking him out.
171	* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'': The {{Wutai}}-esque town of Kyo has one. [[spoiler:Black X runs its drug operations out of it.]]
172	* ''VideoGame/TheTestamentOfSherlockHolmes'': After finding the body of the man missing a finger, Holmes and Watson look around his ho,e and find eveidence that he was involved in the murder of the bishop. They also find opium paraphernalia. They perform an autopsy and discover that his opium had been laced with the same poison that had been used on the Bishop. They go to the nearby opium den and discover the other men involved in the murder.
173	* ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} VII'' has one, and your characters ''get to participate''. If you do, your characters get visited by some kind of SpiritAdvisor who gives you a really powerful item.
174	[[/folder]]
175
176	[[folder:Webcomics]]
177	* ''Webcomic/CtrlR'': Their former apartment that their former roommate Rock still lives in, was revealed to have been turned into this.
178	* The ruined village of Ulon Dosi in ''Webcomic/{{Runners}}'' (ruination in this case caused by most of the population being addicted to crush).
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Western Animation]]
182	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Halloween episode set in [[UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper Ripperian]] [[VictorianLondon London]] features one as the lair of Monty Burns.
183	* In ''WesternAnimation/ToddMcFarlanesSpawn'', Jason Wynn keeps prisoners chained up in the basement of an opium den in something of a personal BlackSite prion. When Terry tries to kill Wynn while at the den, Wynn captures him and forces him to smoke the opium.
184	[[/folder]]
185
186	----
187	[[{{Gamebooks}} Do you:]]
188	* Talk to [[Literature/SherlockHolmes the client in the Deerstalker]] (Turn to page 23)
189	* Attack the cushions with your sword (Turn to page 45)

Context Main / OpiumDen