Tang ren jie tan an

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.

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.

Mixing Crime, Comedy is never easy. You could succeed with awards or flop into winning in Rotten Tomatoes.

I am fortunate as I speak English, Chinese and Thai so it was easy to follow the plot and this is truly a winner.

Everyone having a bad day at work should watch this and be entertained.. which is after all what comedy means. Enjoy.

As for the comedy, the slapstick escapades sequence is just great tribute to Charlie Chaplin. If any reviewers take offense to the farce, they must have not watch Mr Chaplin epic slapstick routines.

I really enjoy the sequences of another lead getting his nose busted in every scene he appear... a tribute and parody to another Hollywood detective that has his nose plastered from start to finish...

The crime is a lock room mystery with a twist. And as one of the main role idolize Sherlock Holmes, the tribute to the cinematography in the Hollywood version with Downey is not lost and thoroughly enjoyable.

And then there are the actions... the actions are surprising. I agreed. Watch the car chase scene and the fight scenes... no spoilers here..

And finally the black comedy portion. The Hospital shoot out and the reference to the sound track at that moment is truly a genius. R&D on the meaning of the song and you will enjoy the shootout scene!! I see a lot of tribute to Thai black comedy style which I enjoy. And I hope this will encourage viewer to look into more Thai black comedies if you enjoy this movie. A lot of gems there.

To top it off...the film squeeze in a hidden moral message. See the other reviews for a clue.

As lost in translation goes, I am afraid its true... easily some of the conversation true meaning might be lost if you watch the subtitles.

Fortunately "using a deity as a hostage" meaning is not lost in subtitles.

If you are a film buff, you will be truly occupied spotting the parodies and tribute and amaze at how all these can be spliced in effortlessly.

And when do big budget movie see an ending sequence where you know the entire cast have a roaring good time? The ending itself put you in a humming mode and remind you to laugh and be entertain.

If you watch this film to spot continuity errors, and be critical on every scene and plot.. you should not be watching this film.

Do watch if you think you want to be entertained.

I have seen lot of Chinese movies, mostly garbage in terms of story line and quality of production. However this movie was quite well made movie. I'm impressed. Some people may don't like this movie because it is not right taste, but I think this movie was enjoyable and truly entertained. I recommend for who like comedy, action, thriller movie. I do not recommend if you like dark and serious movie.

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.