Naturally I sat down to watch "Detective Chinatown" (aka "Tang ren jie tan an") when I was given the chance to do so here in 2019. I wasn't even familiar with these movies prior to stumbling upon them randomly. And given my fascination with Asian cinema, of course I had to watch it.

I wanted to like this movie, I really did. But it just never really caught on with me, and I must say that it was a drag to sit through this ordeal of a movie. Actually, I didn't even finish it, as I fell asleep twice throughout the course of it and simply just gave up with 40 minutes left of the movie. At that point I was well beyond my threshold of what I will endure in a movie. And "Detective Chinatown" was not delivering anything particularly entertaining for me.

The storyline here was just unappealing, and it wasn't something that I found amusing. Sure, there were a few smirks and smiles here and there, but that was about it what director and writer Sicheng Chen managed to acquire from me as I watched this movie.

I didn't really care much about neither storyline nor characters in the movie. There was just something fundamental missing from everything here to make it an interesting movie. For me, it seemed like writer and director Sicheng Chen was just running everything on auto-pilot.

I am rating it four out of ten stars, solely because of the production value and the fact that they had some fair enough actors and actresses in the movie. However, this is not a movie that I will be returning to finish, it just simply wasn't within my liking. And now I have heavy doubts about sitting down to watch the sequels.

After failing his police academy entrance exam, Qin Feng (Haoran Liu) visits his uncle (or cousin) Tang Ren (Baoqiang Wan) in Bangkok. When Tang Ren finds himself the chief suspect in a murder case, Qin Feng uses his powers of observation and deductive skills to solve the crime and clear his uncle's (or cousin's) name.

I've long been a fan of Far Eastern cinema, but have often struggled with Asian comedies. When I clapped eyes on Baoqiang Wang in Detective Chinatown, with his inane grin and stupid hair, I thought 'here we go again', positive that I was in for 2 hours of excruciatingly unfunny nonsense, and the first half an hour did little to change my mind, especially with Wang's silly voice adding to the irritation.

But then something unexpected happened: I laughed. And then soon after, I laughed again. Then, to my surprise, I found myself caught up in the murder mystery plot, and admiring Sicheng Chen's assured direction (especially the visual manner in which Qin Feng mentally processes clues, which reminded me of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes). Wang's daft character grew less and less irksome, to the point that I actually looked forward to his next wacky exploit. Detective Chinatown had finally won me over.

A colourful mix of comedy, adventure, and intrigue, the film ultimately delivers thrills, spills and, yes, even laughs, and although it is half an hour too long at 136 minutes, the reasonably fast pace ensures that it is an entertaining ride, right up to the final twist and the fun song and dance number during the end credits.

6/10 - it takes a while to warm to, but is worth the effort.

I'm not a huge fan of the films put out by mainland China, finding them flawed in various ways: either bogged down in appalling CGI, spoilt by unwanted propaganda, or packed with the lamest comedy imaginable. I thought the same would be true of DETECTIVE CHINATOWN, but it turns out to be a lot more enjoyable than I had hoped. The story follows a young, bland cop, played by a slightly wooden Liu Haoran, who is reejcted by the police and who heads off with his bizarre uncle to solve a murder case in Thailand. Said uncle is played by Wang Baoqiang, who I previously saw in the likes of BLIND SHAFT and KUNG FU KILLER, and he turns out to be perfectly cast. He's eccentric, over the top, very energetic, and most of all, funny. His character is pretty outrageous but he makes the film enjoyable and his long-running feud with a rival leads to the movie's greatest moments. Some of it is slow and sappy, but the lowbrow slapstick scenes are fun and there's some Jackie Chan-style action and a scene or two borrowed from THE RAID 2 which are very entertaining.