Detetive Chinatown: O Mistério de 1900

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.

Detective Chinatown 1900, originally known as Tang Ren Jie Tan an 1900, is the fourth entry in the commercially successful comedic investigative franchise. The story takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown where a young Caucasian woman and an elderly First Nations man are found dead in a back alley. The main suspect is the son of a Chinese businessman who cannot provide an alibi for the time of the crime. The father thus hires a quirky, naive and inexperienced Chinese medicine physician as well as the son of the murdered elderly man who happens to be an orphaned Chinese man who had been adopted by a First Nations tribe and who has developed particularly sharp senses.

This movie initially does many things very well. The colourful, detailed and diversified settings look astonishing throughout even though they obviously represent a much more beautiful version of the actual San Francisco's Chinatown. The costumes and make-up also deserve much praise and bring viewers back to a time set between traditional manners and modern perspectives. The quirky characters are introduced step by step which helps the audience to warm up with them when additional information is delivered in a prologue as well as in several flashbacks. The story itself is quite compelling as well since the body count quickly rises and economical, political and social aspects come into play.

However, the film loses its entertaining structure halfway through the rising action. Comedic moments are awkwardly intertwined with investigative passages. Critical comments about the treatment of Chinese immigrants to the United States of America are intertwined with a vapid love story pulled out of thin air. The most important First Nations member in this whole film is played by a Chinese actor who essentially plays a shameful caricature of a truly fascinating culture and even the supporting actors are portrayed as people who constantly misunderstand situations on an almost shockingly stupid level. Criticizing the way Americans have treated Chinese immigrants is indeed important but this film loses itself in racist stereotypes that can be summarized as all important American characters being rotten to the core and all important Chinese characters being inherently heroic. The film goes even further by justifying a violent revolution against monarchy that will ultimately establish a socialist country. As if that weren't enough, the movie even concludes with the megalomaniac statement that one day China will become the most powerful country in the whole wide world. What started as a very good movie develops a very bitter aftertaste due to its aggressive, brainwashing and omnipresent political propaganda. The director, scriptwriters and political influencers behind this film really seem to be taking its audience for complete idiots who can easily be manipulated. To me, this propagandistic movie feels like a desperate cry for help, nationalism and pride in a desperate time when China suffers its most dreadful economic crisis following a long-winded deadly pandemic and numerous particularly outspoken protests against the state system itself.

Now, don't get me wrong at all, I'm positively amazed by Chinese culture, history and society and even share many of the country's economical, political and social values but this movie's radical propaganda show will even drive off people who actually sympathize with the People's Republic of China. This is what must be called a disastrous political own goal.

At the end of the day, let's try to be perfectly fair with our final verdict. This movie is a very entertaining crime comedy that entertains throughout. Its disturbing, extremist and unnecessary propagandistic elements however slow the enjoyment of this film down significantly. Recent reviews by Chinese members of the audience who have found a way to express themselves freely seem to confirm this analysis time and time again.

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.

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.

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.