Tong Liya has finally parted ways with actor-director Chen Sicheng. He’s been caught multiple times “hanging out” with other women by the paparazzi, so this announcement was just a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Congrats!
After dropping out from 2020’s film line-up due to the pandemic, the third instalment of Detective Chinatown is finally ready to premiere on CNY in 2 days and is currently leading the box office pre-sales.
Liu Haoran and Wang Baoqiang reprise their roles as the genius detective x squeaky-voiced uncle. The film has also cast notable Japanese actors Satoshi Tsumabuki, Masami Nagasawa and Shōta Sometani.
Writer-director Chen Sicheng has grand plans to create his own Detective Chinatown Universe, and the web drama is his first attempt at bringing the series out of cinema and onto the small screen.
The 12 episode web drama comes from Sam Quah, the director of well-received crime thriller Sheep Without a Shepherd and releases 1 episode a day every Wed-Sat beginning today.
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Supervised and written by the Detective Chinatown film series’ director Chen Sicheng, the web drama version stars Roy Qiu as a private investigator. Janine Chang, Chen Zheyuan, Cheng Xiao and Deng Enxi costar. The 12 episode series will revolve around four cases, all set in different locations and directed by different up-and-coming directors.
[Image: Sorry there’s no image, I already wasted enough time to write a synopsis for this potentially great film tainted by too much poo. ]
Verdict: A sequel whose quality lives up to the original, with a tight, intriguing detective story and almost no wasted plot points. Unfortunately, the humor moves from voyeurism and verbal misogyny to straight-up sexual harassment from the leads, and ended with a huge f- you to the audience from the director Chen Sicheng that made me decide to never see another movie by him again.
In Detective Chinatown 2, scriptwriter-director Chen Sicheng proves himself once more as a talented scriptwriters and directors, but also the misogynistic jerk we all know he is. The sequel features a whodunnit story that’s just as compelling, full of plot twists, and sharply written as the first one. Tang Ren (Wang Baoqiang) and ( Liu Haoran) once shine as the buddy cop pair, this time joined by the welcomed addition of Xiao Yang, the new guy framed for a series of mysterious murders in New York City.
Unfortunately, the story’s treatment of its female characters left me with so much bitter taste it’s hard to enjoy it. With two women in fridges, multiple sexual harassments and one incident that I think looked like sexual assault by Tang Ren, a cheap plot of “she-left-me-for-money” to get rid of the former female lead (Tong Liya), the story was oozing with misogyny.
*spoiler below* Continue reading
Easily one of the best mysteries and best comedies of the past few years, Detective Chinatown is a sure crowd pleaser.
A belated review for one of my favorite films of 2016 to get ready for the sequel. Detective Chinatown 2 will be distributed by Warner Bros in the U.S. and will open in 48 markets (biggest in a long time for a Chinese film).
A clean and twist-filled mystery embellished with well-executed humor and splashes of romance kept me on the edge of my seats for Detective Chinatown 唐人街探案. The buddy cop flick from actor-turned-director Chen Sicheng proves that he continues to be one of China’s best young commercial directors.
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The new trailer for Great Exectations 远大前程 focuses on second generation mob bosses Huang Jinrong, Du Yuesheng and Zhang Xiaolin, played by veteran actors Ni Dahong (Intrude the Widow Village at Midnight), Zhao Lixin (Chinese Style Relationship) and Liu Yijun (Lost Love in Times) respectively.
林心如: 這麼大！是想逼死誰[馋嘴][馋嘴][馋嘴]
A belated Happy Chinese New Year to all of our beloved Cfensi readers! Who else stuffed themselves silly with delicious food? It looks like Ruby Lin did too, although I hope y’all had better food than pizza. (I mean, no offense to pizza, which I love, but it just can’t compare with good Chinese food.)
So big! Who do you want to hound to death?
Happy last day of the year! We hope that 2014 wraps up well for all of our Cfensi readers, and that 2015 will be an even better year! No earth-shattering news in this Weibo Wednesday round-up, but there are some cute animals and the usual pack of cute kids.
刘亦菲: 它太萌了我受不了
Crystal Liu Yifei hung out with a baby elephant at the beginning of the month. So adorable! Have another photo below the cut:
True love not only melts icy kingdoms, but also box office records.
If you thought a month was fast for breaking box office records, Beijing Love Story 北京爱情故事 is here to prove you wrong. The Chen Sicheng– film used the double holiday on Friday to their advantage to take in 120 million RMB on opening day, breaking the previous record for highest box office for a 2D film made by “Dad, where are we going?” just 15 days ago.
The romance (plotwise unrelated to the series of the same name) stars newlyweds Chen Sicheng and Tong Liya as well as Carina Lau, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Yu Nan, Wang Xuebing, Wang Qingxiang, Siqin Gaowa, Ouyang Nana, and Liu Haoran. As with the series, Chen Sicheng is both the director and head scriptwriter. For those of you in North America, the film is currently showing major cities across the US and Canada.
Listen to the pretty theme song by new 2013 favorite Xiaoke below: