Detective Chinatown

Qin Feng has failed the police academy exam. At a loose end, he goes to stay with Tang Ren, a distant relative living in Bangkok. Tang presents himself as a detective but his work is largely petty fraud. The day he arrives there is a murder and Tang becomes the chief suspect. The police are after him, the local gangs are after him, and there are seven days. Qin, meanwhile, is genuinely a good detective; he solves by memory and has no field experience at all. Chen Sicheng writes and directs. Wang Baoqiang plays Tang Ren and Liu Haoran plays Qin Feng. It was shot in Bangkok and is one example of the tendency of Chinese comedies to be set abroad. The two things the narrative joins are comedy and classical murder plot; the solution sections are built seriously and are not spoiled by jokes. Its best side is the mismatch of the pair; one loud and incompetent, the other quiet and quick. It was a large commercial success in China and a long running series followed. Its limit is pace; the chase scenes run long and the plot stops in the middle. The solution in the final section is darker than the genre expects and the film's register changes there. Who it is for: viewers who like Asian comic crime films and two hander narratives. Who it is not for: the humour is loud, some jokes repeat, and the characters are exaggerated.