Reel Strategy

All these ingredients come together in Detective Chinatown 1900, the latest installment of director Chen Sicheng’s hit Detective Chinatown franchise. The film follows Qin Fu (Liu Haoran), a newly arrived Chinese medical student, and Ah Gui (Wang Baoqiang), a Chinese man who was orphaned and adopted by a Native American, as they team up to investigate a double murder.　

The second-highest earning film of this year’s Spring Festival holiday season (January 29-February 5), the action comedy had grossed 3.44 billion yuan (US$474m) as of March 5, trailing only the animated blockbuster Nezha 2.　

Chen has spent nearly a decade building the Detective Chinatown franchise. Since debuting in 2015, its blend of comedy, suspense and exotic locations has produced four hit films, collectively grossing over 12.1 billion yuan (US$1.66b). So far, Chen’s directorial works have earned a staggering 15 billion yuan (US$2.07b), making him China’s most commercially successful filmmaker.　

Now 46, the Shenyang, Liaoning Province native is known for his professional versatility as a director, screenwriter, actor and producer. But it is shrewd commercial instinct and keen understanding of mass-market appeal that has made Chen synonymous with box office success.

However, it was his transition to film-making that truly showcased Chen’s creative genius. In 2012, he wrote, directed and starred in the hit romantic TV series Beijing Love Story. Two years later, he adapted the series into a feature film, which grossed over 400 million yuan (US$55m) and established him as one of China’s most promising new filmmakers.　

But Chen’s most significant contribution to Chinese cinema is his Detective Chinatown franchise. Launched in 2015, the first three installments focus on the modern-day adventures of Qin Feng and his eccentric uncle Tang Ren (reprised by actors Liu and Wang) on the case in the contemporary Chinatowns of Bangkok, New York and Tokyo.　

With Detective Chinatown 1900, the franchise takes a new turn.　

“I thought about the origins of Chinatown. Around 1900, the world was in a phase of rapid development and change. The West was undergoing the Second Industrial Revolution, and technological advancements reinforced the ambitions of Western powers. San Francisco, at the time, was full of immigrants from around the globe, with different groups weaving intricate networks of power within the city. Chinatown emerged in this historical context,” Chen told NewsChina.　

Despite its lighthearted action-comedy exterior, the film delves into weighty themes: the struggles of early Chinese immigrants, the exploitation of indentured laborers and anti-Chinese sentiment at the time.　

The story follows Qin Fu and Ah Gui as they investigate a high-profile murder case. The victims are Alice (Anastasia Shestakova), the daughter of Senator Grant (John Cusack), who is pushing to renew the Chinese Exclusion Act, and an older Native American man, Ah Gui’s adopted father. The prime suspect is Bai Zhenbang (Zhang Xincheng), the son of local crime boss Bai Xuanling (Chow Yun-fat). If Zhenbang is convicted, it could spark a nationwide law expelling Chinese immigrants from the US.　

The film sheds light on the harsh realities faced by Chinese indentured laborers who arrived in the US in the late 1880s to build the railroads. Ah Gui’s father was among these laborers, enduring grueling work and meager wages before tragically dying in a railway explosion alongside Ah Gui’s mother. In his youth, crime boss Bai had also been a coolie, working with Ah Gui’s father but surviving the same deadly explosion.　

“The history of early Chinese immigrants in the US is filled with stories of struggle and conflict, leaving me with vast creative space for reimagination,” Chen said.

In 2014, Chen and other four rising Chinese filmmakers – Ning Hao, Xiao Yang, Lu Yang and Guo Fan – were selected for a program at Paramount Pictures, where they studied advanced filmmaking techniques and production processes.　

Reflecting on his Hollywood trip, Chen shared a thrilling moment: a car chase and explosion on the set of Fast & Furious 6 (2013). “There was a scene in a parking lot with nearly 250 real cars parked there. After the explosion was filmed, most of the cars were completely burned, with only three still drivable. Imagine the cost! But it’s a commercial movie, and that’s how it should be,” Chen said.　

“Then we all realized Hollywood is defending the uniqueness of film itself in its own way: It was building a technological fortress, giving audiences the ultimate audio-visual experience so cinema would be an irreplaceable form of entertainment,” Chen said.　

Another moment came when he and the other Chinese filmmakers were asked what was DreamWorks’ most lucrative project.　

“We made several guesses, but none of us even considered the correct answer: the royalties and franchise fees from the rollercoasters at Universal Studios,” Chen said.　

That led him to a crucial realization. “In the long run, if China’s film industry solely relies on box-office revenue, it will always be at risk. I’ve long thought about ways to diversify revenue streams for our industry to solve this problem,” he added.　

After returning to China, the five filmmakers all went on to big-budget commercial filmmaking, each achieving groundbreaking success. Guo Fan’s sci-ff masterpiece The Wandering Earth series (2019, 2023) opened a new chapter for Chinese science fiction. In 2018, Ning Hao produced the critically acclaimed Dying to Survive, about a drugstore owner who smuggles cheap but unapproved drugs from India to help Chinese cancer patients. The next year, Chen released his first Detective Chinatown film with ambitions to develop the franchise along the lines of Hollywood’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Many critics and viewers accuse him of being overly calculated in selecting subjects that tap into trending social issues to stoke public sentiment and boost ticket sales. Some see his approach as opportunistic and exploitative.　

Detective Chinatown 1900, for example, has been criticized for promoting narrow-minded nationalism. Many argue its focus on racism and anti-Chinese sentiments in 1900s America leans too heavily into patriotic messaging.　

“Chen is always so calculated. This time, he’s peddling patriotism and nationalism. I don’t want to be lectured during the Spring Festival holiday,” Shi Cuizhi posted on Douban, China’s leading media review platform. “This film encourages narrow-mindedness, provokes antagonism and agitates hatred,” another user Shengruxiahua commented.　

Similarly, Lost in the Stars, a mystery crime thriller written and produced by Chen, was criticized for exploiting gender-based tensions in China. The Hitch-cockian suspense film is based on a real-life case in which a Chinese man pushed his pregnant wife off a cliff in Thailand as part of a life insurance scam. The film was a huge commercial success, earning 3.5 billion yuan (US$483m). Yet many netizens criticized Chen for capitalizing on the growing mistrust toward relationships and marriage instead of delivering meaningful messages about feminism and female independence in a sincere way.　

“I’m an audience member myself. I live in the same society. I experience, observe and care about the same issues they do,” Chen told NewsChina. “Being a director doesn’t make me different from most people. That’s why I understand what people truly want to watch and what kinds of stories they crave.”　

He likens his filmmaking approach to “scrambled eggs with tomatoes,” a simple, universally loved Chinese dish. “A good film must appeal to both refined and popular tastes. Over the years, I’ve tried to create stories that people of different tastes can enjoy together,” he said.　

The filmmaker has voiced deep concerns about the future of China’s film industry. He believes the market is in a “live or die” situation, as more people opt for short videos and streaming over cinemagoing.　

“It’s not about whether the film industry is doing well or not, but whether it can survive. We’re facing problems that filmmakers throughout cinema’s century-long history had never faced before,” Chen said.　

Movies are tied to cinemas as a primary distribution channel, which according to Chen is a particularly pressing issue in China as its industry is overly reliant on box-office revenue. “Cinemas can’t survive without profit. There is a critical threshold for China’s box office – if annual revenue falls below 48 billion (US$6.6b), 70 percent of cinemas nationwide would shut down. In 2024, we didn’t reach that critical figure. The country only took in 42.5 billion (US$5.9b) in annual box office revenue,” he said.　

Given this reality, his top priority is staying active in the industry and bringing audiences back to cinemas. “At first, I felt hurt when people called me ‘product manager-like director,’ as I’ve always seen myself as a creator. But now, I accept it. Fine, I’m clever and calculated. The real competition isn’t from other films released in the same season, but other forms of entertainment – particularly short videos and short dramas,” he said.　

Facing these challenges, Chen remains a pragmatist. “You have to rekindle audiences’ enthusiasm for film. Don’t stop, keep filming and do one’s best to bring audiences back to the big screen,” Chen said.