[Weekly Update] July 4, 2021

Happy Canada Day. Happy Independence Day. Happy summer time!

ABOUT THE CHANNEL

• Script for our next video is already complete. But due to some situations with sponsors, this video may be delayed by a week or so. This gives me a bit more time to refine the video, as it is about a classic film. I have to absolutely do this film justice.
• Script for the video will be uploaded in a few days, after I clean it up. Notes will be included, too.
• Our video after the next one will be about my first dive into unfamiliar territory that is Cinema of India. If you are familiar with the industry, head to our YouTUbe community page and leave a comment! We are looking for film recommendations.

ABOUT MEDIA

• So, I finished The Detective Chinatown Trilogy, and what a loud journey that was. Detective Chinatown is one of those series that is stylistically consistent, but the genre and focus change subtly between films.
• The first one is mostly advertised as a family friendly comedy, with a side of whodunit. It is about two dudes being framed in a murder case, and have to solve the case within a week to clear their name. As you'd expect, shenanigans ensured.
• In our last update, I talked about its style of humor: Grounded, but loud. very few joke defies logic here.
• The film spends large amount of time on humor, and an equally large amount of time on character interactions. Frequently, characters argue, or a put into situations where their goal are in conflict. It is a very traditional sort of comedy.
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• For its sequel, it is basically a rehash of the first one, but everything is bigger: The main characters are hired to solve a serial murder case. They somehow got themselves in trouble, again. And now they have to solve the case, while on the run.
• One interesting side effect for its goal to be bigger, is that the jokes are no longer grounded. A lot of the jokes come much closer the the non-sense we see in Stephen Chow movie. This makes it a lot easier for me to enjoy it. But for fans of the first film, the humor will seem a lot cheaper.
• Due to the unexpected success of the whodunit element in the first movie, the film puts a lot more emphasis on the serial murder case and the deduction. There are no more scenes of character arguing with each other. Instead, we have a lot of scenes where characters finding clues and deducing the situation.
• Meaning in this film, you can actually solve the case before the characters, as all relevant evidences are presented to you (unlike the first film).
• Which... I did. It's not a very complicated case, and I think you can solve it pretty easily. Heck I didn't even solve it, my script writing experience just lets me see who's the killer the moment they appear on screen. I solved it without evidence.
• This is where the series begin shifting away from its strong point: The characters. And start going all in in the weak points: The detective story.
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• Detective Chinatown 3 positions itself as an "orthodox" detective story. Meaning the case has happened, all evidence are given to you, and you can solve it fairly easily.
• The case is widely criticized as piss easy. I personally found it to be no more easy than the second film, and it does have a better backstory.
• What makes it feel easy, however, is the lack of focus. Nearly half the film isn't about them solving the case, but an entirely unrelated evil crime syndicate playing a game with our protagonist. A game similar to... "The Game" by David Fincher.
• A lot of these games relies on the characters superhuman ability to see and remember things. And the few games that don't require it... Yeah you can solve it before the main character. That's one big problem with the series' direction: The script isn't as smart as the audience.
• That was excusable when the movie is a comedy not meant to be taken seriously. But now, it wants to be a proper whodunit, it needs to be a lot smarter.
• The worse part of the movie, however... Is the focus on casting big name international stars.
• Detective Chinatown's lead actor Liu Haoran has since became a bit of a big deal in China. And with an increased budget, the film also cast Masami Nagasawa, Satoshi Tsumabuki, and Tony Jaa.
• Tony Jaa is meant to be the newest member of the detective team. Yet, he doesn't really play anyone except Tony Jaa, he wasn't given a backstory, or an emotional arc.
• In sort, the series went from a character driven comedy, to a movie that shows off  the stars.
• This may be the reason why it failed in China (outside of the pandemic, that is). Expectations were high for the movie, but it is too busy setting up future sequels with a crime syndicate that's unrelated to the plot, and showing off their star powers.
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• Personally, I don't think the third film is that bad. It's just rather unfrocks. In terms of trilogy, it doesn't reach the high of the Spider-Man trilogy, but it also never falls quite as low as Spider-Man 3.
• Would I recommend giving it a watch? I'd say yes, especially if you are reading all the way to here. You now have a set expectations, you can enjoy the series to the fullest.

And that's the update! Sorry there may not be a video next week, but that only means there'll be two videos coming later, close together. In any case, I'll keep everyone posted!