Tuesday, 22 October 2019

Web Drama: Detective Chinatown

Title: Detective Chinatown
Chinese Title: 唐人街探案 / Tang Ren Jie Tan An
Broadcast Website: iQIYI

Broadcast Date: January 1, 2020

Air Time: Wednesday-Thursday 20:00 (2 episodes) for VIP, Wednesday-Saturday 20:00 (1 episode) for non-members (See Viewing Calendar)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Mystery, Suspense
Language: Mandarin
Episodes: 12
Director: Dai Mo, Ke Wenli, Lai Mukuan, Yao Wenyi
Screenwriter: Chen Sicheng
Production Company: iQIYI, Shine Asia, Wanda Pictures, As One Production
Executive Producer: Chen Sicheng
Producer: Dai Ying, Shang Na
Origin: China
Related: Detective Chinatown 1, Detective Chinatown 2, Detective Chinatown 3
Watch Episodes On: Youtube (eng subs)

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Synopsis and Plot Summary

Strange crimes occur in Thailand as the ranking for world's best detective sees a shift. New detectives come into the picture to tackle three difficult cases.

Lin Mo (Roy Chiu) is the student of Chinatown's number one detective. Yetian Haoer (Chen Zheyuan) is Yetian Hao younger brother. Separate storylines find the two characters caught in the center of mysteries revolving around the victim's widow Ivy (Janine Chang) and bar singer A Wen (Wang Zhener). Lin Mo pursues two cases: Four-Faced Buddha and Name of the Rose that not only takes place in Bangkok but also in Kaoshiung.

The third case about the Ghost's Invitation takes the story back to Bangkok and then to Tokyo. The investigator on the job is none other than Yetian Haoer who teams up with Asia's five-member team that include Lu Jingjing (Cheng Xiao) and rookie policewoman Sa Sha (Zhang Yishang)

Fun Facts

Chen Sicheng expands on the Detective Chinatown movies by creating the web drama of the same name.
Filming which started in December 2018 lasted 114 days.
Filming took place in Bangkok, Kaohsiung and Tokyo.
Unlike the movies which revolved around two main protagonists played by Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran, the story follows Roy Chiu and Chen Zheyuan's characters with the difference being that they do not appear together in the web drama.
Prior to the cast was revealed, Roy Chiu and Janine Chang were caught in dating rumors. Roy Chiu's manager revealed that the actor was indeed pursuing Janine Chang.
Wang Baoqiang, Xiao Yang and other cast from the Detective Chinatown movies appear in the drama. Liu Haoran also makes a cameo.
Filming for almost four months is quite substantial for a drama with only 12 episodes as the same people behind the movie worked on the drama.
Chen Sicheng had a vision to create modern day detectives as renowned detectives like Di Renjie exist only in ancient times.
It achieved a high Douban rating 8.0 shortly after its premiere.

Cast