Detective Chinatown

After failing the entrance exam for the police academy, Qin Feng travels to Bangkok, where a distant relative takes him in. The relative, Tang Ren, presents himself as a gifted private detective but is in fact a small-time operator working under a vain police sergeant. When a man suspected in a major robbery is found dead and the stolen gold has disappeared, two rival detectives are assigned to investigate together, and Tang Ren quickly becomes the prime suspect in the killing. Convinced of his own deductive ability and determined to clear his relative, Qin Feng sets out to work out what really happened.

Detective Chinatown was released in 2015 and is the first film directed by Chen Sicheng, who also wrote the screenplay. It launched the series he continued with Detective Chinatown 2 in 2018 and Detective Chinatown 3 in 2021. Baoqiang Wang plays Tang Ren and Liu Haoran plays Qin Feng, with Tong Liya, Chen He, Xiao Shenyang and Xiao Yang in supporting roles. The production involved 35 credited cast members and 44 credited crew.

Made for about 15 million US dollars, the film took roughly 126 million US dollars worldwide, a return that far exceeded its cost and helped establish the series. On IMDb it holds 6.6 out of 10 from around 4,100 votes, and on TMDB 6.8 out of 10 from about 164 votes. A critics' rating of 6.5 out of 10 from seven reviews places critical and audience assessments close together.