Detective Chinatown

After failing his police academy entrance exam, Qin Feng (Haoran Liu) visits his uncle (or cousin) Tang Ren (Baoqiang Wan) in Bangkok. When Tang Ren finds himself the chief suspect in a murder case, Qin Feng uses his powers of observation and deductive skills to solve the crime and clear his uncle's (or cousin's) name.

I've long been a fan of Far Eastern cinema, but have often struggled with Asian comedies. When I clapped eyes on Baoqiang Wang in Detective Chinatown, with his inane grin and stupid hair, I thought 'here we go again', positive that I was in for 2 hours of excruciatingly unfunny nonsense, and the first half an hour did little to change my mind, especially with Wang's silly voice adding to the irritation.

But then something unexpected happened: I laughed. And then soon after, I laughed again. Then, to my surprise, I found myself caught up in the murder mystery plot, and admiring Sicheng Chen's assured direction (especially the visual manner in which Qin Feng mentally processes clues, which reminded me of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes). Wang's daft character grew less and less irksome, to the point that I actually looked forward to his next wacky exploit. Detective Chinatown had finally won me over.

A colourful mix of comedy, adventure, and intrigue, the film ultimately delivers thrills, spills and, yes, even laughs, and although it is half an hour too long at 136 minutes, the reasonably fast pace ensures that it is an entertaining ride, right up to the final twist and the fun song and dance number during the end credits.

6/10 - it takes a while to warm to, but is worth the effort.

I thought the movie was very, very funny.

It had some very good jokes in it. You get nervous seeing comedies in a different language than your own and wonder if you'll get the jokes, but the jokes were a simplistic base of comedy that everyone can laugh at

Plus several of the jokes were visual slap stick that was just universal. In fact the movie all together was visually simulating, which showed Thailand's Chinatown to be a very colorful place.

The two main actors in this were an exceptional team as well. The movie is about a young man who fails out of the police academy despite his exceptional skills in observation (he plays the straight man). TY get over his depression he visits an uncle who lives in Thailand (he plays the screw ball) Together they have to solve a murder while looking for a gangster's gold.

It was a really fun, entertaining film to watch.

As a detective movie, the mystery is decent, but squashed into the last quarter of the film. The first half of the movie is "silly fun". It is funny, but mostly physical comedy and "wu li tou". After a lot of chaos, finally they start to analyze and detect. In the last 1/4, the film also manages to squeeze in a twist and surprise.

Without giving out spoilers, one of scenes has a facial expression reminding me of Edward Norton's brilliant portrait of Roy in Primal Fear.

Overall enjoyable but nothing unforgettable.

I don't speak Mandarin, but I thought it was a quality movie. 100 gags; the audience was laughing lightly through most of the movie. This movie was produced in China and has similarities to a Jackie Chan movie, except that it is slightly better. It has a silly, comedic timing mixed with some serious, violent scenes.

The audience was filled. I only speak English, but it had subtitles. They spoke rather fast, so I could not keep up with their words, but the scenes told the story. Basically, two detectives are on a hunt for gold and a murderer.

There is everything in this movie: a beauty queen, a tiny amount of sexiness, mobster actors, a straight man comedic partnership, racing scenes, dancing, excellent marital arts fights and beautiful scenes.

In summary, a smart kid visits his uncle in Thailand after failing to become a Detective in China (for reasons). Soon after arriving, the uncle is incriminated.. and the both work towards solving the case. The uncle knows the town (and is quite agile) and the kid is more than smart. Frenzy ensues.

It reminded me of old Chinese movies, similar to Jackie Chan's older work.. but there is more thought put into the script than the action.

** A note : Even if it is a Chinese production, this is a movie filmed completely in Thailand! Now, most of the cast speaks in Mandarin(?), several lines are delivered in Thai(?). So! Even though it seemed to be a properly translated movie (subtitles), I still felt some minor details were a bit confusing.. Didn't really affect my understanding of the main plot.

Anyway.. as for the movie itself : This is a chaotic and comedic mystery with more energy and colorful real-life-locations filled with extras than I was expecting. It has a darker tone underneath (as you would expect from a murder mystery), but it's hard to take it seriously. It is primarily gags, but doesn't mean that people that like to play along with the resolution of a case won't enjoy it. In fact, there is a lot of cleverness hidden amongst the jokes and unrealistic chasing all over "Chinatown". If anything, I enjoyed unraveling it as it went along. Sadly, it's more interesting than it is fun, but scarcely so. The action isn't particularly memorable, but the varied and a well defined cast makes up for it.

As of now, I can't see how the third movie in the series made so much money.. as this seems to be a one-and-done kind of thing. But we'll get there.

Entertaining enough to watch, but at 2 hours and 15 minutes it is a bit long.