Tang tan 1900

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!

Despite a broad brush of very serious subjects the movie is trying to deal with. The Magical Native American man/ a certain idea of Native Americans is resurrected from the Hollywood golden age of cowboy movies, in order to immediately be subverted, a multilayer plot gives even the tiniest characters some closure by the end, and the intrigue remains whole until the very end of the movie, even though it leans more on the side of a gory comedy rather than an investigative drama, or maybe a mix of the two, but, I guess such is life itself as well.

This all ends with an instructive exchange, a sort of a meta-dialogue, between two secondary characters, tycoons, talking about taking ascendance in the world through "power wields everything and, money, wields power" , and indeed , this movie is in of itsellf, showing that the Chinese movie studios can indeed take ascendance as a new, welcome tool of diversifying the sources of power in this world, through their ability of making fun movies which can get the money needed for that.

It only seems right to address the elephant in the room when setting a movie in a California Chinatown in the 1900s. Chinese Exclusion Act, working conditions for Chinese labourers who built the transcontinental, etc. All seem relevant and could create a very interesting background if done correctly. Detective Chinatown 1900 beats these over the heads of the audience to the point it's out of place. I think it's more effective to give the audience room to ponder these topics.

When the movie isn't focusing on those travesties or diving into more modern day nationalistic propaganda, it's still weaker as a buddy cop movie than any of the trilogy save a few action scenes.

Honestly, considering Chen Sicheng's usual... performance, this movie is way better than the third one.

A miracle, really.

(He's tortured my expectations so low, it's kinda sad.)

But you gotta admit - dude knows how to make a Chinese New Year blockbuster.

He single-handedly invented "Spring Festival Gala: The Movie."

Whatever's trending on Douyin?

He throws it in.

Musical numbers? Check.

Plot twists? Check.

Stand-up comedy vibes? Yup.

Magic tricks?? Bro, even those.

A big happy ending with a cheesy group song? You bet.

Chen Sicheng really took the recent Spring Festival Gala vibes to heart: "Teach a lesson first, then let people have fun." Man's getting older - just wants that iron rice bowl now.

When it comes to cashing in on patriotism, even Wu Jing would have to bow and call him the godfather.

Honestly, if it weren't for Chow Yun-fat's acting saving those cringy lines, I would've been rolling my eyes halfway through.

Though I had high expectations for this movie for being much spoiled of how great it is, I was still pleasantly surprised by Detective Chinatown 1900. As a Chinese immigrant, I'm proud that it's a mainland Chinese director who decided to touch upon topics of immigrant laborers, the Yellow Peril, and the Chinese Exclusionary Act, and further at how well this part of history is adopted, recreated, and incorporated with the overall storyline of the movie --- as it goes, Chen Sicheng is a true merchant in terms of selecting film subjects. Chow Yun-Fat gives hell of a performance for a multilayered Chinese-American hero: a loving father, an approachable elder, a cunning diplomat, and an authoritative (mob) leader. Bai's speech at the court is a rare scene of cultural outcry that struck me personally and inspired new reflections.

Notice how I never mentioned the "detective" bit of the movie? The crime/investigation storyline is decent but not amazing compared to the rest of the franchise, complexity and portrayal wise. Some parts of the murder even took me out in terms of the absurdity and logistics, which leads me to question if the director has a thing with pregnant women (cue his last film Lost in the Stars).

Overall, enjoyable comedy, ambitious multi-storylines, and great performances across the board. Keep in mind, however, that this film is targeted toward the Chinese market/audiences and it's meant to educate, provoke, and moralize, perhaps in a way you might not agree with.