What to Expect When Chinatown Detectives 3 Comes Out
SPOILER ALERT!
The last installation in the Chinatown Detectives series was set to be released on Chinese New Year’s Eve, and though the COVID-19 pandemic has shut movie theaters long past that date, it is finally due to come out soon. As the finale of a horror-mystery trilogy, and along with the more-recent release of a TV show revealing more clues, it was voted to be the most anticipated movie to come out in Shanghai.
The movies revolve around the main character Feng Qin (Haoran Liu), a stuttering genius detective with a penchant for the mystery game Crimemaster, where he is ranked second beneath an anonymous entity named “Q.” In the first movie, when he failed the interview to get into Beijing’s Police Academy, his grandmother, seeing how depressed he was, sent him to visit his distant uncle Ren Tang (Baochen Wang) in Thailand. In order to establish his youth, Ren Tang maintains that he is called Little Tang and the main character Old Qin. Known as the No. 1 Detective of Bangkok’s Chinatown, but in reality, a superstitious gold-digging scoundrel and quite intelligent, Feng Qin was about to ditch him when he was framed for murder. The supposed murderer committed suicide, but Feng Qin realized a young, innocent-seeming girl was the real culprit, but couldn’t prove it.
The separate movie posters for the biggest stars: Ren Tang and Feng Qin. Young Tang is holding his precious Buddhist beads while Old Qin is in a neat college student blazer Courtesy of Hi.online.sh.cn
When they managed to brave that case and the treat of prosecution, they found their place on Crimemaster (mostly on Feng Qin’s part, as there was a 99-question test to rank IQ) and were then called to New York with the rest of game’s best detectives for the second movie. There they met an illegal immigrant named Yi Song (Yang Xiao) who played his own hand in the murder, and also two other notable detectives, the terribly arrogant but smart half-Chinese half-Japanese Noda Hiroshi No. 1 (Mu Chong Qi Fu), and flirty hacker Kiko (Yuxian Shang), who expressed that she liked Feng Qin before they parted at the airport. Then Noda Hiroshi and Feng Qin both received a call about an impossible murder in Tokyo, the finale.
This movie is defined to have the most diverse cast, and will also face the rather difficult task of weaving in so many new characters. The four main detectives, including the unnamed Thai character, will have to deal with a great number of new Japanese members within the movie and finally come together to face Q. It will also cover a great deal of Japanese culture, as the director eloquently did with Thailand and America, showing sumo wrestling, samurai, the bathhouses, having a latticed room as the scene of the murder, and so forth. As with the second movie, where Feng Qin and Ren Tang rode down Times Square in a horse-drawn carriage, large sections of Tokyo were gathered for the movie and utilized as a go-cart racing track to make this blockbuster.
A small portion of the cast to appear in the third movie: (from left to right) Ren Tang, Feng Qin, Noda Hiroshi No. 1, (four new characters), Fang Den (Zhifeng Zhang), and Kiko Courtesy of Sohu.com
Meanwhile, not long after the release of Chinatown Detectives 2, the TV show of the same name quietly came out, along with a few other new characters. Though it appears to be an unrelated spinoff, it slowly became obvious it would tie in to Chinatown Detectives 3 too. The TV show is divided into three parts, the first two about Mo Lin (Ze Qiu), Ren Tang’s new apprentice at the Bangkok Chinatown detective station. He was left behind when Young Tang was called to New York to divvy up all the cases Ren Tang owned the police, and clearly handled a supernatural-seeming mystery much better than his master could’ve. At first, he was just shown as a sharp detective with an otherworldly sense of smell, but the second part revealed his original job was to illicitly cover up murders as suicides, and his parents were murdered by someone with a Q tattoo on their wrist. But in order to find justice, which was hinted as to hunting down Q, he decided to take on the legal job of detective.
Mo Lin immersed in the Crimemaster game (where he is ranked fifth) as Ren Tang tells him about the big case in New York Courtesy of Sohu.com
He also had a brief, romantic interlude with the stunning florist Ivy (YuNing Zhang), but she turned out to be pulling the strings of a huge underground crime organization they were supposed to be trying to investigate and fled to London with her latest ex-husband’s money. Yet she, too, also had a Q tattoo behind her ear. But her trip clearly did not last long, because she made an appearance in the Chinatown Detectives 3 trailer and most definitely will be working with or as Q to orchestrate the big murder (as a teaser revealed he was testing Feng Qin).
The beautiful Ivy, wearing her iconic red dress Courtesy of Btbtt.net
The last portion of the Chinatown Detectives TV show introduces Noda Hiroshi No. 2, the jilted younger brother of the half-Japanese detective in the second movie. Though he is as rich and (from his perspective) handsome, he is clearly not as clever and could not even enter the Crimemaster game. A notorious gamer, he and his group of friends set up an elaborate E-sports competition to flesh out the murderer of gamer legend Ghost. The only link he shared with Mo Lin is that they both contacted Kiko at one point to draw some digital records. As they were visiting Ghost’s mother, Old Qin was also there, and No. 2 explained to him that he would do anything to beat his brother.
Though Feng Qin and Noda Hiroshi No. 1 would be on the same side, along with the new Thai detective, Hiroshi No. 2 would most likely find some way to thwart him or get involved. However, other than appearing on movie posters, he did not show up in the trailer, so he probably does not have very a big role in the movie.
Noda Hiroshi No. 2 and his gamer crew, trying to impress a young group of genius kids to get into the big gaming conference they actually designed Courtesy of Sohu.com
As the fans await the movie, re-watching the first two and analyzing the TV show, many conspiracies arise. The biggest, of course, is the identity of Q. First of all, there is the label seductress Ivy carries, but the shabby, penniless Yi Song admitted in the second movie he had close contact with Q but never met him. Though his ranking on Crimemaster was around the 1000s, he was able to keep in step with Feng Qin and Ren Tang during the whole mystery, all because of Q’s dropped hints and clues, and even had the smarts to get involved in the serial murderer’s plan and plant his own victim inside. His sister, which had gone missing not long after he entered America, was most likely trafficked to South America by an evil businessman working under the tycoon which called Qin Feng to New York. However, there is another mystery within his shady backstory, because the same actor played Tai Kun in Thailand as Ren Tang’s bestie. However, neither of the main characters were able to recognize him. While that could’ve just been a strange choice from the casting director, this murder mystery series most likely planned his new identity switch.
Tai Kun in Bangkok’s police station, proclaiming that his best friend Ren Tang is a criminal (since he was framed for the murder) Courtesy of Bilibili.com
Yi Song in New York, explaining why he had a hand in the murder Courtesy of 92drama.com
Another bizarre thing is that the young girl Old Qin was unable to send to prison in Bangkok appeared on the movie poster. Known as Little Fang Den, she was a criminal mastermind at middle school, and according to the trailer, she appeared in Tokyo too. This will most likely result in her heading to her rightful place in jail, but it is also highly possible Q called her to Tokyo to get involved in the murder Feng Qin and Ren Tang have to solve.
Fang Den giving her immortalized, haunting smile after Feng Qin explained her motive and how she orchestrated the murder, asking, “Is this how a villain would look?” Courtesy of Bilibili.com
Lastly, the scriptwriter dropped a small clue all the way back in the first movie with a “story for later”. The two main detectives were pouring out their backstories, Ren Tang explaining that his wife cheated on him and when he broke a tooth rushing out from his new home, he had his wedding ring melted to replace it, and went to Thailand to avoid his small-town relatives. Feng Qin then admitted he didn’t fail his entrance exam to the Police Academy because he said he wanted to commit the perfect crime. His father was prosecuted and sent to jail when Feng Qin was a little boy, and later his mother left the picture and Old Qin was put under the care of his grandmother. His sentiments towards his father are unclear, but he could’ve either intended to commit the crime on to his father’s prosecutor and break him out of jail, or hurt his father for leaving him so early on.
Either way, as there is nothing to do but wait for the movie to be released, the watchers can only continue reviewing the older movies and tv show episodes and come up with more theories!
Featured Image-The new head characters of Chinatown Detectives 3, wearing matching detective coats Photo courtesy of Hinews.com
By Sophia Shan