Tang Ren Jie Tan an 1900

Yesterday in the Chinese cinemas there was a real frenzy, so we arrived 30 minutes earlier and settled into our seats, expecting the same -according to the cinema app every ticket was gone for shows until 11:30 p.m. But to our surprise, it was pretty chill. Cinema 1 at He Ping in Wuxi was actually only half full, and after watching the film, I totally get why!

"Detective Chinatown 1900" (2025), directed by Chen Sicheng and Dai Mo, is a total flop that brings the once-promising franchise to a new low. What was supposed to be a clever blend of comedy and murder mystery ends up being a cringe-worthy display of poor filmmaking that might even make you feel a bit dumber after watching it.

Set in 1900 San Francisco, the story centers around the murder of a white woman in Chinatown, with a Chinese man as the main suspect. This intriguing setup had the potential for sharp social commentary and gripping storytelling. Unfortunately, the execution is so terrible that it completely wastes any potential the plot had.

Chen Sicheng's direction is all over the place, resulting in a jumbled mess of scenes where Chinese characters face abuse from white racists, justice is obstructed with assumptions of guilt, and white families would rather see their daughters dead than have a Chinese grandchild! The humor misses the mark, often feeling forced and awkward against the serious backdrop of a murder case. The characters are flat and underdeveloped, and the performances are equally disappointing, with actors struggling to deliver their lines or add any real depth to their roles.

It's really sad to see a franchise that started with so much potential fall apart like this. "Detective Chinatown 1900" is a weak attempt that fails to hit the mark on any level, leaving viewers frustrated and let down. This latest entry is a textbook example of how not to make a film that is a complete waste of time for everyone involved. Do yourself a favor and steer clear of this cinematic disaster!

The popular "Chinatown Detective" franchise has seen some hits and misses, and this is definitely one of the hits.

I had to go to an early morning screening cause the movie is constantly booked out in China.

The story at the core of the plot is a classic whodunnit with many twists and turns. The development of an interesting and complex multiple murder plot keeps you hooked throughout. The story is large in scope, intertwined with the Qing Empress sending an imperial captain to arrest Cantonese revolutionaries in America, weapons shipments, a native American tribe, and the Chinese exclusion act.

The latter however ends up taking up a bit too much of the story, overshadowing the murder plot by the middle of the movie.

Known for its jovial detective stories where the stumbling leads solve the case through a keen eye, knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and sheer luck, the franchise this time bit off more than it could chew with a cartoonishly delivered political plot that kept on growing and taking up more screentime.

Still, this movie is definitely worth seeing and will keep you entertained throughout!

This is a film released on the first day of Chinese New Year 2025. I have watch none of the Chinatown Detective series, nor other films in the same time period. I find it an okay one.

This movie is characterized as comedy. In fact, I do not find such scenes particularly cleverly developed, and am not amused by these. However, it does entertain the majority of the audience.

What makes it okay is the plot. It is, of course, not a very surprising story, and some people may say it is boring. But the movie tells the story to the audience completely and well. Forgetting about the technologies nowadays, telling a story is a film does, and this one does it fine.

While Detective Chinatown 1900 tries to blend comedy with a dark chapter of history, its tonal imbalance weakens the overall experience. The film relies too much on exposition rather than strong storytelling, making its mystery feel contrived and overly reliant on coincidences. Comedy feels misplaced given the heavy subject matter, and while the cast delivers solid performances, the writing struggles to treat its audience with intelligence. A more serious approach, with only minimal humor, would have made for a much stronger film. Ultimately, it's a forgettable entry that fails to leave a lasting impact.

At times this is actually quite a fun spoof along the lines of "Sherlock Holmes" meets "Charlie Chan" by way of "High Noon" but for the most part it's a mess of a film that goes on for far too long. With the Manchu court facing the great powers we saw in "55 Days at Peking" (1963) the Empress Dowager dispatches her finest officer to San Francisco to track down a traitor. As it happens, the Holmesian "Fu" (Haoran Liu) is also in that very city on a quest for the killer of the daughter of senator "Grant" (John Cusack). Quite swiftly his investigation and the imperial mission start to overlap as the enthusiastic "Fu" and his newfound spiritual Indian guide "Gui" (Baoqiang Wang) discover that the prime suspect in the killing (Steven Zhang) is the son of local entrepreneur "Bai" (Chow Yun-Fat) and that the senator is using this to stir anti-Chinese sentiment to the point where he can force them out and seize their property. What now ensues delivers a series of rather randomly assembled escapades that mix murder mystery with western with romance and add a good dose of skullduggery to boot as they try to prove the young "Bai" was framed. Fu and Wang make for a decent enough double act at times, but the story loses it's way way too often and after a while the characterisations - especially "Bai" and "Grant" become light-weight and strained parodies. Fortunately, after about two hours, auteur Sicheng Chen must have felt he was running out of file space and so decided he'd better wrap things up - and for that last quarter of an hour the story knits together things we knew with things we didn't and presents us with a rather feeble denouement that did sort of suggest that there could be more adventures to come for the likeable "Gui" and "Fu". What is potent is the closing statement from the elder "Bai" about remembering the importance of immigrant labour in establishing a country that was all too quick to shun that working community later when it suited it, but it's made in a cack-handed and over-the-top fashion and drowned out by an overpowering score and thus loses much of an impact that might actually resonate in an USA that's still unsure how to recognise those who do/did the work but perhaps didn't all have the same/right skin colour or paperwork. It has it's moments, just nowhere near enough of them.