Detective Chinatown 1900
唐探1900
China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 135 mins.
Directors: Chen Sicheng 陈思诚, Dai Mo 戴墨.
Rating: 5/10.
The mega-franchise travels back to San Francisco in 1900 but is basically the same mix of goofy playing and (some) detection, here let down by a very nationalistic tone.
STORY
Beijing, 1900. After representatives from eight foreign powers have been persuaded by the Qing government not to further pursue the (anti-foreign) Boxers, the Empress Dowager (Xi Meijuan) is assured by her officials that stability has returned to China. However, they point out that Sun Wen [Sun Yat-sen] and Zheng Shiliang, members of the (anti-Qing) Revive China Society, are now hiding out in the US following thir latest failed rebellion, and are planning a bigger one. Minister Rongshan (Li Chengru) recommends Fei Yanggu, captain of the Imperial Guards, should be sent to arrest them, and the Empress Dowager agrees. On 28 May negotiations between the Eight-Nation Alliance and the Qing government break down and the former launches a military operation against the Boxer Rebellion. Meanwhile, in the US, anti-Chinese sentiment is on the rise, making life for immigrants difficult. On the night of 10 Aug, in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a Native American chieftain, Six Hands, is murdered in a street behind a Chinese theatre after spotting the disembowelled body of a young white woman on the street. Next day the local paper receives a message from someone claiming to be Jack the Ripper claiming responsibility. Sherlock Holmes, who is on his way to San Francisco, is hired by Bai Xuanling (Zhou Runfa), head of the biggest gang in the US, Xiesheng Tang 协盛堂 [Hip Sing Tong], to investigate the case, as his son, Bai Zhenbang (Zhang Xincheng), is the chief suspect. Sensing a tricky, racially-charged case, Sherlock Holmes passes it over to his Chinese translator, Qin Fu (Liu Haoran), a Sherlock Holmes wannabe. The dead woman, Alice (Anastasia Shestakova), was the daughter of Grant (John Cusack), a virulently anti-Chinese Republican senator currently running for mayor of the city. Six Hands was chief of the Navajo tribe. So, both whites and Native Americans have become nervous, and anti-Chinese sentiment has further increased. Meanwhile, Six Hands’ adopted son, Gui (Wang Baoqiang), whose Chinese parents died in an accident while building the railways, has arrived in town vowing revenge on Six Hands’ killer. Bai Xuanling tells Qin Fu that he and his son were at the Chinese theatre that evening but his son left early during the performance, saying he was bored. Witnesses said he was seen in the fateful alley, and he had a history of harrassing Alice; next morning he was found by police at the port and arrested, but he refused to talk. Worried by the enormity of the case, Qin Fu tries to slide out of it, saying he’s actually in San Francisco to meet Fei Yanggu from the Qing court. But Bai Xuanling insists he handles the case, as Grant is threatening to ban all Chinatowns in the US. Fei Yanggu (Yue Yunpeng) arrives by boat that day, with two imperial bodyguards (Wang Yutian, Zhang Aoyue), and they are immediately scammed by some fellow Chinese (Xiaoshenyang, Sang Ping, Cao Rui) and forced to sleep rough. Meanwhile, by chance Gui bumps into – and helps – Qin Fu as he’s trying to escape from Bai Xuanling’s home; after convincing Qin Fu to help him find Six Hands’ killer, Gui accompanies him back to Bai Xuanling’s home, where Qin Fu introduces him as his assistant. Also turning up, separately, are Fei Yanggu and Zheng Shiliang (Bai Ke). Bai Xuanling forbids Fei Yanggu from arresting Zheng Shiliang in his home. After Fei Yanggu has left, Zheng Shiliang reveals that Bai Zhenbang has remained silent because on the night of the murder the two of them went to steal guns from the Irish gang led by Marston (Sean Kohnke). Qin Fu and Gui now have four days to find the killer before Bai Zhenbang’s appearance in court. And during that time the bodies of two other women are found disembowelled.
REVIEW
After Bangkok, New York and Tokyo, film-maker Chen Sicheng 陈思诚 takes his hugely successful Detective Chinatown series not to London (as promised at the end of DC3) but to San Francisco – and back in time by over a century. Detective Chinatown 1900 唐探1900 is much the same mixture as in DC2 and DC3, with stars Wang Baoqiang 王宝强 and Liu Haoran 刘昊然 playing versions of their odd-couple characters in the earlier films (crazed elder sleuth, keen young sidekick) and little real detection between all the goofing around. Neither DC2 nor DC3 came close to equalling the fine original – with its real love of detective fiction, and especially locked-room mysteries – but this fourth entry in the 10-year-old franchise at least manages a half-coherent plot and some interesting performances along the way, notably from Hong Kong veteran Zhou Runfa 周润发 [Chow Yun-fat] as a smooth-talking gang boss.
Chen takes a co-directing credit this time with young Shenyang-born Dai Mo 戴墨 (Fireflies in the Sun 误杀II, 2021, Endless Journey 三大队, 2023, both with Chen as creative producer 监制) and turns in a typically good-looking product thanks to regular key crew. The final reels, however, are let down by some nationalistic dialogue that, while stemming from the plot’s socio-political background, is still very off-putting in such mainstream entertainment. Without equalling DC3′s huge hawl of RMB4.5 billion, this one has still managed a very hunky RMB3.61 billion, just ahead of DC2, to take second place in the CNY 2025 box-office race. That brings the series’ total hawl to over RMB12 billion – with a fifth outing promised (again, supposedly, in London).
The film actually begins in Beijing, during the summer campaign by the Eight-Nation Alliance against the Qing government and the Boxers, thereby setting up the script’s underlying theme of Western aggression against Chinese. This is the complete opposite of DC2 and DC3, which were almost celebrations of Chinese Behaving Badly Abroad (especially by Wang’s character). After this historically compressed (and rather confused) opening five minutes, the action shifts to the US, specifically San Francisco, where anti-Chinese sentiment is on the rise, making life difficult for immigrants. In a Chinatown backstreet, a Navajo chieftain has his throat slit next to the disembowelled body of a young white woman, and a note later seems to implicate Jack the Ripper in the killings. Really.
The script becomes even more confused with Sherlock Holmes arriving on a train, getting cold feet about such a racial/political case, and then passing it over to his Chinese translator who happens to be a big Holmes fan and wannabe detective. Thus, the young Qin Fu (Liu) – the time-travel version of the series’ Qin Feng – finds himself working to clear the name of S.F.’s top Chinatown godfather (Zhou), who’s being blamed for the murders by anti-Chinese politicos led by senator Grant, father of the disembowelled woman. All this in the first 10 minutes.
Then, in the film’s biggest leap of faith, Wang is introduced, as the revenge-seeking adopted son of the Navajo chieftain, who was born in Hebei province but raised by Native Americans when his parents were accidentally killed while building the West Coast railways. It’s a role Wang makes all his own, prancing around in Navajo costume, speaking Navajo and Chinese, and generally being a middleman in a story where race is always at the centre. Just as director Chen has here used an all-new team of writers, so Wang has toned down his previously manic acting to an acceptable level.
Once the main characters are all established – including an Imperial envoy from Beijing played by comedian Yue Yunpeng 岳云鹏 and a counter-revolutionary on the run played by Bai Ke 白客 – the screenplay finally gets to some preliminary detection around the 50-minute mark. The rest of the movie – like DC3, over-long at 130-odd minutes – is a mixture of amusing character play, occasional bursts of more detection, and some rather simplistic, racially-charged politics led by US actor John Cusack as the bereaved senator Grant. (Cusack recently starred in the much better Decoded 解密, 2024, a period spy drama also directed by Chen.)
That last thread, which touches on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and exposes the myth of justice and equality as founding principles of the US, sits rather uneasily alongside the main comic plot – and leads to several nationalistic speeches at the end which are even more jarring. At its best, with fine chemistry and repartee between the trio of Wang, Liu and Bai Ke, plus a passionate, dignified performance by Zhou as the gang boss, Detective Chinatown 1900 is smoothly entertaining. At its worst, with political speechifying, ragged plotting (such as Yue’s role), ridiculous casting (Grant’s murdered daughter played by an accented Ukrainian actress) and a clumsy explanation of the plot in a big public scene in both Chinese and English, it’s a laboured clock-watcher.
Some 40 minutes before the end, when a suspect is shot and racial violence breaks out, the movie does reinvigorate itself and reintroduce some detection to the sagging storyline. And throughout it’s always a treat for the eyes, with impressive sets of S.F.’s Chinatown, and strong contributions from regular key crew such as d.p. Du Jie 杜杰, editor Tang Hongjia 汤宏甲, composers Wang Zongxian 王宗贤 [Nathan Wang] and Hu Xiao’ou 胡小鸥, and Hong Kong stylist Zhang Shijie 张世杰 [Stanley Cheung]. Shooting was mostly done at a studio complex in Shandong province duing Jul-Oct 2024. Whodunit fans may notice a major clue at the 55-minute mark which is swiftly passed over.
CREDITS
Presented by As One Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Beijing Happy Pictures (CN), Shanghai Ruyi Film & TV Production (CN), China Film (CN). Produced by As One Pictures (Beijing) (CN).
Script: Chen Sicheng, Liu Wusi, Li Peng, Lin Xiaoge, Jon Stewart. Photography: Du Jie. Editing: Tang Hongjia. Music: Wang Zongxian [Nathan Wong], Hu Xiao’ou. Art direction: Zhao Xuehao. Costumes: Zhu Yan. Styling: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: Fu Kang. Action: Wu Gang. Car stunts: Wu Haitang. Visual effects: Xu Mingjun, Qi Xiaoxiao. Execeutive direction: Zhang Zhe.
Cast: Wang Baoqiang (Gui), Liu Haoran (Qin Fu), Bai Ke (Zheng Shiliang), Zhang Xincheng (Bai Zhenbang), Yue Yunpeng (Fei Yanggu), John Cusack (Grant), Zhou Runfa [Chow Yun-fat] (Bai Xuanling/Louis), Anastasia Shestakova (Alice Grant), Tai Bao [Zhang Jianian] (One-Armed Lao Si), Wang Yutian (Ren Wu, Fei Yanggu’s bodyguard), Zhang Aoyue (Ren Liu, Fei Yanggu’s bodyguard), Scotty Robert Cox (Weyman), Samuel Hayden-Smith (Lance, police chief), Sean Kohnke (Marston, head of Irish gang), A.J. Donnelly (Thomas Lawrence, union leader), Wei Xiang (Jin Lingfu, magician), Yin Zheng (Crazy Horse), Xi Meijuan (Empress Dowager), Li Chengru (Rongshan, minister of Imperial Qing Household), Xiaoshenyang (chief scammer), Feng Wenjuan (Gui’s mother), Sang Ping, Cao Rui (scammers), Wang Hao (deceased’s son), Chen Chuang (male servant), Jiang Yi (theatre manager), Li Wandan (Princess Dada), Yan Yang (Wen, Bai Xuanling’s assistant), Yan Dong (Wu, Bai Xuanling’s assistant), Fudira (Amanda, Alice’s maid), Yyan Jinhui (Jin Lingfu’s assistant), Zhang Yitong (Lin Yue’er).
Release: China, 29 Jan 2025.