2022 / 73m - China
Mystery
3.0*/5.0*
The Iron Coffin of Western Xia poster

Watches

May 25, 2022

3.0*/5.0*

Another Chinese Sherlock Holmes. There are so many Chinese genre films appearing these days, that it is nigh impossible to keep track of how everything fits together. So much in fact that I had no idea whether the intro of this film was a recap of previous entries in a franchise, or just a rushed introduction. Not that it matters a lot.

Song Ci is a legendary detective who solves every case he gets assigned. The case he is currently handling is a tad trickier, as it involves royalty. The death of a king has the potential to disrupt a brittle peace between nations, so Song Ci has to be extra careful not to step on any toes. Some supernatural elements are making things even harder for him.

This is another basic streamer film, though with a tighter focus on crime solving. The performances are a bit all over the place, production design is decent but clearly on the lower end of the budget spectrum, the plot is rather convoluted, yet everything is neatly explained at the end. Nothing out of the ordinary, just some decent entertainment.