A web series sits between the second and third films and introduces a detective the third film brings back without explaining him, and the fourth film released is set in 1900.
Release order goes wrong in two places here and both are easy to fix. Take the three modern films in order, drop season one of the web series in between the second and the third, and save the 1900 film for last even though it came out fourth.
Seen some of these already? Tap the circles to tick them off. The full list below fills in as you go.
Bangkok, and the film that puts the two leads together for the first time. Everything after it assumes you have seen it.
New York, and the film that sets up the detective ranking app the later stories run on. It also introduces Kiko, who leads a case in the web series.
Twelve episodes in three separate cases. It introduces Lin Mo, the detective the third film brings back with no introduction at all.
Tokyo, and the biggest of the three. Lin Mo and Noda Koji turn up in it as brief appearances that only land if you have watched the web series.
Sixteen episodes in four cases, made three years after the third film and set after it. Kiko from the second film leads this one.
Then what? Then Detective Chinatown 1900, released in January 2025 and set in San Francisco in 1900, with Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran playing new characters rather than the ones you have been following. Leave it until the end. It is a self-contained mystery, English Wikipedia states it is not narratively connected to the earlier films, and putting it first because of its title year gives you nothing the rest needs. No further film has a confirmed title or date.
A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below: tick anything off in either place.
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