Detective Chinatown 1900 review – blockbusting Chinese franchise goes back in time
This prequel to the huge-grossing Detective Chinatown franchise, though focused on anti-Chinese xenophobia in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, manages to be a rare example of a Sino-blockbuster not filled with maudlin patriotism; it mostly carries its cultural message charmingly and with plenty of self-deprecating humour. At one point, an imperial Chinese investigator toughs it out in order to form an alliance with a gaggle of Irish hoodlums straight from Gangs of New York. 'You held yourself so well back there,' his underlings congratulate him, before their leader's legs give out. 'Don't let the Americans see. I'm about to pee myself!'
The story here is that malevolent forces are stirring the great American melting pot. The son of local Tong leader Bai Xuanling (Chow Yun-fat, still with charisma on tap) is arrested for the murder of the daughter of racist Republican congressman Grant (John Cusack), so the former sends for wunderkind sleuth Qin Fu (Haoran Liu) – apparently deputised by the actual Sherlock Holmes – to get his kid off the hook. Also killed the same night was a Native American elder, whose son Gui (Baoquiang Wang) swears revenge and becomes pig-tailed Watson to Fu's junior Holmes. No explanation (at first) for why he can speak fluent Hebei dialect.
The plot sprawls in all directions, with lots of enjoyable hokum from the moment Fu falls semi-naked from a bathroom window into Gui's poncho to the sound of the Platters' Only You. Reading crime scenes according to the principles of Chinese medicine, Fu comports himself like a cocky, inane Tintin, while Gui pumps his muscles up with acupuncture needles at strategic moments like a bodybuilding Tonto. There's a total blitheness about the racelifting aspect of Wang playing a Native American; the film opts instead for a heartwarming general emphasis on racial tolerance and mixing seemingly exemplified by a showstopping scene in which a carousel of the wrong people appear from a magician's box.
Tightly paced and snappily directed, this is decent-quality Chinese screwball, if a touch overlong. It's a shame that the film mars its own message of international confrerie in an oddly pointed coda where Bai warns of his adopted homeland: 'There's so much we can learn from this place. Study your opponent's strength before going into battle.' Then another character predicts that China will soon be the world's most powerful nation. There ends the sponsored message from the Chinese Communist party; you can't say they don't leave us clues to pick up on.
Detective Chinatown 1900 is in UK and Irish cinemas from 29 January.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
4 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Tim MacGabhann lays past addictions bare in 'blisteringly brilliant' memoir
Irish writer Tim MacGabhann has lived many lives, as an acclaimed novelist and journalist writing on the cartels. His latest book The Black Pool lays his past addictions bare, he tells critic Aimee Walsh Stories are formed like conjuring a spell. It's hard to pinpoint the genesis for any one story idea. There could be a number of influences which come into play when the writer is forming the basis of a story: something they've read by another author, perhaps, or witnessing an interaction between two strangers in the street. Life is the source material, and never more evidently than in the memoir form. But how to write a memoir when the memories resist recollection? Irish writer Tim MacGabhann's The Black Pool: A Memoir of Forgetting does just that, by weaving together fragments of his past life marred by heroin addiction and alcoholism and as a journalist reporting on cartel crimes in Mexico. There is an inherent difficulty in reviewing a memoir, as these are not fictional fragments shed from daydreams, these are the moments which build a life. How to review a written life? Quite easily, I should say, when the writing is this blisteringly brilliant. The events of this memoir occurred over a decade ago, and Tim tells me that he was hung-up on trying to tell his life's story through fiction, but a conversation with Brendan Barrington at the Dublin Review dislodged that, unfurling what would become his memoir. He says the editor asked: "Why don't you just tell it straight?" there's a story kind of rattling around inside the fictional machinery… why not just take it away [and rework into essays]… then you be as messy as you want, be as free as you want.' This freedom is electric on the page, holding nothing back from the reader: the blackouts, the highs and lows, the bodily fluids leaked. It's all here. It's a breath of fresh air, in a world of packaged and marketed versions of ourselves, to see raw pain and perseverance. While this is a memoir primarily about addiction and recovery, it too, by necessity, is a book focused on the body: getting out of it and being trapped within it. The duplicity of this is evident throughout the memoir, in what I see as a version of the writer and a shadow version of the writer. What Tim in his memoir terms as 'magic buttons', the little black dots drawn on his childhood wrists, then later reappear in the entry wounds of the heroin needle at the same point. Similarly, both writer and his father turn to the act of writing to purge distressing feelings. It's stunning to read these uncanny doublings which ever accumulate, without being tedious or repetitive. We talked about the thrill of success - the pinging of Instagram and email notifications - as people respond to this powerful book. However, Tim is wary of this buzz, saying: 'I'm capable of turning anything into a harmful substance so it's like my wonderful magic power.' Help us improve our content by completing the survey below. We'd love to hear from you! This rush is like cocaine, he says, but his new outlook is to 'get back to zero all the time,' a mellowing to avoid a quick buzz. He adds: 'it's about a new freedom… a new peace when you give the [drugs] up rather than how do I get the old [feeling] in a new form.' So what then is the point of addiction memoirs: is it to absolve the reader from their own struggles? Or to see other's struggles in a new light? Tim is sceptical about this idea, saying: 'I don't think any artwork should be trying to take on that kind of responsibility at all no matter the genre.' He warns against falling into the 'empathy trap' that 'reinforces this thing of 'okay there's two classes of people: there's the people who suffer and [then] there's the people who read about it.' This can add to people becoming 'useless bystanders,' he says. Another facet of the memoir is Tim's time in countries beyond Ireland, from Spain to Mexico. While in Mexico, he worked as a journalist reporting on crimes and harms carried out by the cartels. During the interview, it struck me as poignant that the uncanny doublings evident in his book were playing out in real-time, mid-conversation. Tim got into that line of work as he couldn't be a bystander. Covering the social and material realities of those who were living in fear of the cartel is important to him. While reporting, he was interested in questioning 'what does it feel like to live in a town that's become very dangerous because corrupt commercial interests are pressing down on everything.' And by doing so, he occupied a space of reporting these horrors while having a 'shield' as 'foreign journalists [don't get] targeted as often as local ones'. He says: 'I don't think it's possible for foreign journalists to get close enough to be put in real danger the way their Mexican colleagues can be… they received threats at home.' The Black Pool is written in a way that is both literary without being impenetrable. I think this book will mean a great deal to many people, even if the writer did not intend for the book to carry that responsibility. And what a feat that is: to gift new understanding of addiction, of life, of living in pain, to those who the writer will never know.
Scottish Sun
14 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Awkward moment Love Islander Megan praises famous pal's amazing relationship… without realising they've secretly SPLIT
The Sun revealed the pair had called it quits - just four months after rekindling their romance LOVE Island newbie Megan Forte Clarke gushed over good pal Harriett Blackmore's relationship with Ronnie Vint - unaware that they've SPLIT. Megan, 24, is close friends with Harriett, who rose to fame on last year's series, and later starred on All Stars at the start of 2025. 4 Love Island's Megan gushed over good pal Harriett Blackmore's relationship 4 But Megan was unaware that Ronnie Vint and Harriett had split just hours before Credit: Instagram 4 The pair had called it quits just four months after rekindling their romance Credit: ITV Harriett reunited with ex Ronnie on the spin-off series and rekindled their romance, giving their relationship a second chance. But The Sun revealed today that Ronnie and Harriett have called time on their relationship, just four months after getting back together. Speaking to The Sun and other press, Megan was asked if she was looking for her own Ronnie. But clearly oblivious that Ronnie and Harriett had split just hours before, Megan went on to praise the footballer for worshipping her pal. Megan replied: "Yes, he [Ronnie] is obsessed with her [Harriett] and rightly so. "I would love something like that." The news of her friend's break-up would not have reached Megan, who is currently in hiding ahead of the new series. The brunette beauty has over 3,000 followers on social media and she's sure to turn heads when she enters the villa. Irish Megan, who hails from Dublin, is no stranger to a stunning selfie, and also likes to travel, according to her social media. Love Island Stars Harriett Blackmore and Ronnie Vint Split After Ibiza Getaway She works as an actress, and at the end of December she posted a snap from a press night at Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury, after starring in Cinderella. The star is set to join a string of other sexy singletons for the 2025 summer series. These include Rose Selway, who runs 12 aesthetics clinics, boasting a famous clientele including former Love Islanders Lucinda Strafford and Jessy Potts. The 24-year-old beauty salon owner from Devon has passed the audition to join the cast of Love Island 2025. Other faces set to appear on screen when the new episode airs include cheeky chappy Tommy Bradley, hunky 6'5' Aaron Buckett, who was the first name linked to this series, stunning Manchester model Shakira Khan and Sophie Lee, both revealed by The Sun. ITV has revealed that Love Island 2025 will kick off on Monday, June 9.
Scottish Sun
16 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Moment idiot TikTok influencer gets instant karma after pulling stupid prank on the WRONG unwilling victim
A TIKTOK influencer got instant karma after a prank backfired horribly. Video shows that the joke was really on the prankster as plainclothes police officers quickly arrested him. 5 A TikTok influencer got instant karma after a prank backfired horribly 5 A plainclothes officer arrested him immediately 5 The yob was cuffed in the middle of the street Approaching a man in London, the Apple Pay prank involved the influencer going up to a man and tapping their phones together. The prank's victim quickly grabs him by the arm while the perpetrator loudly shouts "hairline" repeatedly. He then tells the man "I took £1,000 out of your account for a new hairline" in reference to his own receding style. As the man continues to hold onto his arm, the cameraman asks his friend whether he should keep filming. Other people then start to get involved, making sure the influencer doesn't get away and saying "you don't go." Despite the chaos, the TikToker tells his cameraman to "keep rolling bro" with a big grin on his face. He quickly changes his tune when the man starts asking people to call the police. The "hairline" prankster quickly starts shouting "bro it's a prank" as he is dragged backwards by the man he was pranking, and a passerby. Another man then approaches the youngster and loudly says: "I am a police officer." As the police officer asks the man to explain what happened, the videographer keeps asking whether he should keep filming. 'You can't make this up' - Irish fans in stitches at Ruesha Littlejohn's playful prank upon Katie McCabe's camp arrival The video captures his friend being put in handcuffs by more plainclothed police officers while he continues to shout that it was "just a prank". The boy is pushed to the floor as the police men tell him to keep still. Despite shouting out in pain and saying they're "breaking my hand off," he encourages his friend to "keep recording." Police then calmly tell him that he has been detained so that they can conduct a stop and search for articles relating to fraud. It's not the first time that pranksters have been dealt instant karma. A teenager who threatened to stab a pedestrian was quickly humiliated when he fell off his bike moments later. Road rage can be a common way for motorists to get instant karma for their reckless driving. Video footage shows two cars locking horns after a risky undertake. A silver car cut across a white line marking a bus lane to undertake a black SUV. Blue lights quickly revealed the black car to be an unmarked police car, leaving social media users laughing at his expense. 5 Police calmly tell him that he has been detained so that they can conduct a stop and search
