Detective Chinatown (2015)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Memorable, crazy movie

Just perfect...

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

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.

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 think this movie is OK for teenagers and people with low i.q. for once i agree with reviewer "basiclogic". this reviewer just kills all Chinese movies just-about. but....yah...this movie was that bad, i tried to stick it out but had to turn it off after 20 minutes. i was hoping it would be a really good comedy..but in the first 20 minutes i didn't get 1 laugh out of it. the movie is also stereotyping Chinese people but its a Chinese movie...thats low. this movie tries to be a gag a minute but after 20 minutes it wasn't working for me. its good for people who are racist against the Chinese. for all the good movies coming out of China you're going to get some bad ones too. its a shame really..Chinese making fun of Chinese..would be OK if it was funny, but it's not. watch at own risk...be warned.

Another terrible and ridiculous garbage movie from China, wasted lot of money to shoot it in Thailand. The screenplay was just ridiculous and absurd to the extreme, the casting, Jesus wept, so bad, the acting, I really can't stop my head and neck to shake horizontally. This kind of movies would only be appealed to viewers with low I.Q. and poor education. By keep watching this kind of movies would undoubtedly damage your brain cells, not just your wallet.After the Chinese enjoyed the sudden prosperous wealth in almost every trade you could imagine, lot of people have become so rich, but their tastes simply failed to catch up with their fortune, they just wanted to become 'Investor', or "Movie Producer" and printed such newly added titles on their business cards. They blindly threw their easily earned money once they were approached by some con-artists in the Chinese movie industries before even understood what is what. Therefore, so many media companies jumped into the cesspool to produce movies either trying to release on the big silver screens or on the on-line PC monitors with so many bad screenplays, bad so-called directors and actors. The result is so many barely watchable, so stupid, ridiculous, messy movies were churned out monthly and yearly. The only trick was to sign up certain famous actors, male or female, to be the leading role and put their names on the posters for the selling point. These actors just shamelessly jumped on the money train to make more money while they were still either hot or popular.This god-awful farce is just like what I have pointed out on the above. They signed up a still popular ugly actor to be the main character, an absolutely unbelievable Chinese Thai police detective in Bangkok Chinatown, then with a mix of clowns and jerks to be the supporting characters, adding another young lamer to be the kinfolk of the clown-like Chinatown detective, finally patched up such god-forbidden farce.You have to become a complete idiot to watch this or, you don't have to suffer such transformation since you are already a moron with a complete fried brain, then both of such pathetic beings might enjoy this farce and keep laughing non-stop. Consider this review is a sincere warning with goodwill.