Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 656, "Detective Chinatown 1900," is now showing.

The 2019 summer movie season didn't have a very good start.

Although there were several Hollywood blockbusters in June, the total box office for the month only just exceeded 4 billion yuan, a slight decrease compared to the same period last year.

However, industry insiders don't seem to think much of it, because this summer movie season has only just begun, and the main event hasn't even started yet.

Furthermore, people who don't watch movies in June are likely saving their money for shows they'd rather see.

For example, in early July, Galaxy Pictures heavily promoted "Detective Chinatown 1900," a prequel to the "Detective Chinatown" series, during the summer season.

This work has been promoted for several months. On February 24, 2019, the release date poster was released, which mainly featured the lead actor Wang Baoqiang and newcomer actor Liu Haoran.

Yes, as a prequel to the "Detective Chinatown" series, this film features a new lead actor.

Bai Jingting, who was originally cast as Qin Feng, will not be appearing in this film.

No, it can't be said that he didn't act in it. In fact, Bai Jingting's name is still in the cast list of "Detective Chinatown 1900", but this time he is no longer the lead actor.

The change in lead actor has even drawn criticism from some fans of "Detective Chinatown" and Bai Jingting's fans.

After all, replacing Bai Jingting with a young newcomer from the lead role in the "Detective Chinatown" series seems a bit like discarding a useful tool after it has served its purpose.

Of course, whether other film and television companies are behind this public opinion storm, or whether Bai Jingting hired someone out of dissatisfaction, remains unknown.

However, Xinghe Pictures and the crew of "Detective Chinatown 1900" quickly came forward to explain the public opinion, stating that this film is a prequel and still uses the original cast, which could easily cause confusion with the main storyline.

In addition, Bai Jingting himself reassured his fans, stating that he also has a role in the film.

He also participated in the subsequent "Detective Chinatown 1900" series, and had a significant role.

Moreover, he will still play Qin Feng in the main storyline of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe.

Although many of Bai Jingting's fans are still not satisfied with this explanation, in the face of the current downturn in the film and television industry, Bai Jingting can only obediently cooperate with Xinghe Group, the industry leader.

The recasting of "Detective Chinatown 1900" can be seen as a warning to him, telling him not to have any extra thoughts and to obediently follow the company's instructions.

After these actions, the public opinion against this issue was effectively suppressed.

Correspondingly, during this wave of public opinion, Liu Haoran's fan base saw a significant increase.

After all, this young man is not bad-looking and is not a complete amateur. Although some fans of the "Detective Chinatown" series and Bai Jingting's fans have boycotted him, being famous for being controversial is still being famous, and the online public opinion cannot cause too much damage to his career.

Unless it's said that the quality of "Detective Chinatown 1900" is so poor after its release that Liu Haoran's performance drags the film down, then his career will truly face a devastating blow.

However, after that, several more trailers for "Detective Chinatown 1900" were released.

On March 25, 2019, the production team of "Detective Chinatown 1900" released the official trailer titled "Laughing Through Jinshan," which featured appearances by Qin Fu, played by Liu Haoran, and A Gui, played by Wang Baoqiang.

In addition, there are Bai Ke as Zheng Shiliang, Yue Yunpeng as Fei Yanggu, and Chow Yun-fat as Bai Xuanling...

This star-studded cast has greatly increased moviegoers' expectations for "Detective Chinatown 1900".

By July 5th, when "Detective Chinatown 1900" was officially released, its pre-sale box office had already exceeded 350 million yuan.

In comparison, films released during the same period, whether it was the Hollywood animated sequel "The Secret Life of Pets 2" or the Hong Kong film "The White Storm 2: Drug Lords," both had significantly lower box office numbers than "Detective Chinatown 1900."

As for the day of its release, thanks to the series' reputation, as well as the film's pre-sales and box office performance, "Detective Chinatown 1900" secured almost half of the theater screenings, and even more in some theaters.

After all, this film and television winter is not only tough on actors and film and television production companies, but also on cinemas, which are downstream in the industry chain, and have also fallen into a period of business downturn after ticket subsidies were restricted.

At this time, they are naturally thinking about chasing popular movies during the summer season to make more money so that they can survive the film and television industry downturn.

"Detective Chinatown 1900" is exactly the cash cow they've been eyeing for a long time, so naturally they've allocated the best screening slots to it.

And "Detective Chinatown 1900" lived up to expectations, grossing 2 million RMB in advance screenings alone.

As for the box office on the opening day of July 5 (including midnight screenings), it took a whopping 440 million yuan amidst competition from several other films, directly accounting for 70% of the day's box office.

The box office success of the preview screenings and the premiere further prompted theaters to allocate more resources to "Detective Chinatown 1900".

The allocation of resources further propelled the box office of "Detective Chinatown 1900" to even greater heights.

Of course, all of this is also inseparable from the excellent quality of the film itself.

After the large-scale release of "Detective Chinatown 1900", the film's reputation began to spread across various internet platforms.

The film opened with a 7.1 rating on Douban, with most people giving it a 4-star rating, indicating that it is a completely different and new style of "Detective Chinatown" movie from its predecessors.

The film received a 9.1 rating on Taobao Movies, with many viewers saying that the new Detective Chinatown series was very good, and that Liu Haoran's performance, though somewhat immature, was not out of place.

As for the plot of the movie, the story of "Detective Chinatown 1900" is not complicated, and it is not much different from the movie that Chen Sicheng made in Wang Hao's previous life.

Because the director of this film is also Chen Sicheng.

After Li Kui finished filming the "Detective Chinatown" trilogy, he didn't want to be limited to this genre anymore. Naturally, Xinghe Pictures let Chen Sicheng, the company's contracted director, take over the filming and production of the subsequent films in the series.

The story of "Detective Chinatown 1900" is different from the first three films in the series. It is a prequel, and the time span of this prequel is quite long.

The film opens on the eve of the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China, with the Qing Dynasty attempting to appease the various nations with money, treasures, and cultural artifacts. At the same time, the Qing court also dispatches imperial guards to the United States to arrest revolutionaries.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1900, anti-Chinese sentiment hung heavy like a dark cloud, filling the air with oppression and unease. Beneath this seemingly peaceful surface, a bizarre murder shattered the tranquility of the land like a thunderclap.

Mayoral candidate Grant's (John Cusack) daughter Alice is brutally murdered in Chinatown, her abdomen ripped open in a manner strikingly similar to that of London's "Jack the Ripper."

Beside Alice's body lay the old Native American chief, whose throat had been slit.

This bizarre murder case shocked the entire United States. Based on the confession of the person who reported the crime, the police quickly pointed the finger at Chinese doctor Bai Zhenbang (played by Zhang Xincheng) and successfully arrested him at the dock as he was trying to leave the United States.

Bai Zhenbang is no ordinary man. He is the son of Bai Xuanling (Chow Yun-fat), the boss of the Longqing Society, the largest Chinese gang in the United States. He went to England to study medicine and, after returning to the United States, opened the first Chinese hospital in San Francisco's Chinatown.

However, according to the testimony of Alice's maid, Bai Zhenbang had harassed Alice. Based on these clues, it was almost certain that Bai Zhenbang was the murderer of Alice, "Jack the Ripper".

This accusation was like a spark that instantly ignited the already surging anti-Chinese sentiment across the United States. People were outraged and chanted slogans such as "Kill Chinatown" and "Drive out the Chinese." The entire Chinatown seemed to be the eye of the storm, on the verge of collapse.

The film "Detective Chinatown 1900" opens with a tense atmosphere of impending storm through various information and visual language.

However, beneath this tense backdrop lies a light and enjoyable story pace.

Liu Haoran plays Qin Fu, a young Chinese medicine practitioner studying in the United States. He works as a translator for the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and receives a $1 case from him. He travels to San Francisco and meets Bai Xuanling, the boss of the "Longqing Society". Under Bai's coercion and enticement, he is forced to take on the responsibility of investigating the "Jack the Ripper" case in Chinatown in order to help Bai Zhenbang clear his name.

Meanwhile, another victim in the case, Ah Gui (played by Wang Baoqiang), a Chinese-American Native American hunter, embarks on his journey to San Francisco, burdened by endless grief over his adoptive father's murder and a burning desire to uncover the truth.

The gears of fate turned quietly, leading these two very different people to become partners by chance.

Ah Gui possesses exceptional combat skills and acts recklessly, yet he has a keen intuition, seemingly able to capture the most crucial clues amidst chaos; Qin Fu is proficient in medicine, meticulous, and adept at reasoning, always able to uncover the truth from the slightest clues.

They strolled through Chinatown, a blend of Chinese and Western styles, with rickshaws and early automobiles running side by side on the streets. The collision of the old and the new outlined a unique mark of the era.

Every chase, every deduction, is thrilling.

The audience followed in their footsteps, sometimes holding their breath in the tense chase, sometimes enlightened by Qin Fu's brilliant reasoning, and sometimes amused by A Gui's recklessness, their emotions fluctuating like a roller coaster ride.

Meanwhile, Fei Yanggu (played by Yue Yunpeng), the imperial bodyguard dispatched by the Qing court, also arrived in San Francisco.

Qin Fu, A Gui, Bai Zhenbang, Fei Yanggu, Bai Xuanling and others gathered in the main hall of the "Longqing Society". During this process, Fei Yanggu discovered that Zheng Shiliang (played by Bai Ke), a young man next to Bai Zhenbang, was a revolutionary.

So, in addition to the original "Jack the Ripper case", "Detective Chinatown 1900" opened up another subplot.

It turns out that after Bai Zhenbang met Zheng Shiliang in England, the two joined the revolutionary party together.

He was seen at the crime scene where Alice died because that night Bai Zhenbang and Zheng Shiliang broke into the Irish gang's territory and stole hundreds of their guns, intending to smuggle them back to China to support Mr. Sun's uprising.

With Zheng Shiliang's testimony, it was impossible that there was time to kill Alice and remove her internal organs that night.

Bai Zhenbang's criminal suspicion seems to have been cleared, but who is the real murderer?

Qin Fu and A Gui continued their investigation. Combining traditional Chinese medicine techniques, they used the "observation" method at the location where the body was found to discover that the street was not the primary crime scene for Alice's death, but rather the location where the witness, Uncle Liu, was murdered.

Upon arriving at the location where Alice's body was laid out, the two used the "smell test" (autopsy) to discover wood chips on Alice's head, human tissue under her fingernails, and injuries and fractures throughout her body. They concluded that Alice must have fought with the murderer before she died, and that the perpetrator must have had minor scars on his body.

They then went to Grant's office, told Alice's father about the clues, and tried to ask him some questions, but Grant angrily kicked them out of his office.

Having no other option, they secretly entered Grant's house to carry out the final step of their "stealing" strategy.

They found some damage to the faucet on the wooden stair railing in Grant's house, and torn clothes in Alice's closet.

Just as the investigation was making progress, Alice's maid, Amanda, was murdered in her home.

As a result, the voices against Chinese people intensified, and public opinion was not very favorable towards Bai Zhenbang, Chinatown, and Chinese Americans across the United States.

In particular, Alice's father, Grant, used his daughter's death as a pretext to vigorously promote his theory of expelling Chinese people to the Americans in order to win the "popular support" and become the local mayor.

At the same time, Jin Lingfu (played by Wei Xiang), a famous Chinese magician in Chinatown, is discussing with Bai Zhenbang and Zheng Shiliang how to transport the guns back to China. They eventually decide that Jin Lingfu will use a European tour as a pretext to transport the guns back by ship.

But Fei Yanggu and his two companions found them and started fighting with them, Qin Fu, A Gui, and others.

Afterwards, they escaped to the rooftop, where Bai Zhenbang confessed that he and Alice were actually in a relationship. He said that he was arrested at the dock that day because Alice had written him a letter asking him to elope with her.

Such important information immediately resolved a doubt in Qin Fu's mind.

On the very day Jinling Fu planned to leave, Bai Zhenbang deliberately revealed himself to attract arrest, intending to lure the tiger away from the mountain. Zheng Shiliang then took the opportunity to drive the carriage to the dock.

Fei Yanggu joined forces with the Irish gang to intercept them, but little did they know that Zheng Shiliang and his group were the real bait. Bai Zhenbang and his men had already successfully transported the guns to the dock, but at the cost of Qin Fu, A Gui, and Zheng Shiliang being arrested.

The following morning, just as Qin Fu and the other two were about to be buried alive, news arrived that the Eight-Nation Alliance had invaded China.

Taking advantage of the situation, Qin Fu sowed discord between the three men and the Irish gang. Overwhelmed by grief and despair, Fei Yanggu and the others finally decided to take action.

Fei Yangu, who was initially seen as a joke by the audience, demonstrated his true strength as a royal bodyguard, using his superb throwing knife skills to knock down several Irish gang members one after another.

The two guards' broadswords caused the Irish gang members, who were spewing profanities, to have their limbs flying everywhere.

Times have changed. No matter how good your kung fu is, it's useless against firearms.

In the end, Fei Yanggu and the other two fell into a pool of blood. Fortunately, thanks to A Gui's backup plan, a group of Native Americans suddenly rushed out and managed to save Qin Fu, A Gui, and Zheng Shiliang.

However, as they were leaving, Fei Yanggu, who had been lying on the ground, grabbed Zheng Shiliang's trouser leg with his blood-stained hand, looked at him, and said in a difficult but earnest tone:
"Save China!"

(End of this chapter)