I knew CHINATOWN was hailed as the paragon of a film noir, and that's why I finally got down to watching it. However, despite having known about the movie for quite a while, I wasn't really prepared for just how dark it could be. The movie starts slowly, with a private detective taking on what looks like a routine case. But soon he finds himself enmeshed in a web of conspiracy, murder, lies and deceit. The plot is like a perfect machine that relentlessly moves towards a final resolution that is truly epic and truly soul-wrenching.

In a recent New York Times piece, they called CHINATOWN "a meditation on evil", which is spot-on. Set in 1937, this movie is just all-round perfect, first and foremost how everything is connected within the grand structure of the movie, that is rich in themes (water, evil, trust, guilt, greed) and even richer in suspense, as the audience—just like our protagonist—tries to find out what is happening. The story is "complex" for sure, but it's not "complicated". Everything makes sense in the end and the complexity pays off big time.

Besides the impeccable screenplay, everything else about this movie is perfect as well. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway carry the movie with sophistication and dignity. Dunaway's stunning performance in particular fills every scene with an aura of mystery as you are trying to find out what her motives are. The set pieces are beautiful, the score is compelling; and camera-work and editing could not be any better. There is a reason this one is called a classic! So, if you're ready to delve deep into a richly layered exploration of the dark side of humanity—enjoy the ride. But don't expect to come back unscathed.

Just like the plot within, this film is deceptive. You go into it thinking that you'll get just another crime drama, and from the beginning it feels like one. Then you see Hollis Mulwray dead in the reservoir, and all of a sudden it feels like you've gotten a body shot from boxing legend Joe Frazier.

The rest of the film is more of a boxing match between you and the film. You think you've got it figured out, you think you're starting to get some shots on it, but then it gives you another body shot that throws all your conceptions out the window.

And the film never lets up, it just keeps going and going and going. The conspiracy and plot gets thicker and deeper, thicker and deeper. Is it Cross? Is is the real Mrs. Mulwray? The only form of relief, of closure you get from the film is from a scene where Mrs. Mulwray describes a girl who she's keeping away from everyone else as both her "daughter and sister" - I'll let you do the math yourself on that one. I personally don't want to think about it.

Not even the end provides closure. Just as you've started to hope for Mrs. Mulwray and start to relax knowing she's gotten away from a seemingly mentally deranged Mr. Cross, a pistol report rings out and the horn of her car starts to sound.

"Forget about it, it's Chinatown" Jake Gittes is told by his partner as they walk away into the darkness of the night. After seeing the debauchery, the conspiracy, and the crime present in the film, it's almost like he's inviting the audience to "forget about it" as well.

Renowned for its stylised performances, artful direction and riveting story telling technique, Roman Polanski's Chinatown captures a bygone era of crime drama. Jack Nicholson (in an Academy Award nominated performance) is Jack Gittes, a wisecracking private eye who makes "an honest living" off the murky moral climate of pre-war Los Angeles. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to look into her husband's extramarital affair, Gittes unknowingly stumbles across a web of double-dealings and deceit. What at first appears to be an open-and-shut case unravels right under Gitte's nose to expose a maelstrom of political scandal, widespread corruption and dark family secrets that all come to light, one night in Chinatown.

Winner of the Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay, this ground-breaking film also garnered 11 Academy Award nominations in all (including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director). Chinatown is a landmark achievement in the classic film noir tradition, cementing its place as a cornerstone in every movie aficionado's collections.

After reading through the blurb and writing down the information, I turn over the DVD case and can't help but thinking that this is one of the best films I've ever seen in a long, long time. Its place amongst the best Noir pictures is well deserved. One would argue that Noir cinema had its time in the 30s or 40s but was later tailed off by the arrival of more market-driven movies. Chinatown meets the criteria of any movie that wants to qualify as Noir: twist and turns, a touch of violence, a solid and rich plot that slowly diverges into several, an inquisitive, witty and cynic detective; someone who Raymond Chandler would be very proud of, characters well outlined whose loyalties slowly but surely are forcing them into witching alliances...and so many more. Yet, what has granted Chinatown a place of its own in cinema history is the changes it brought to the genre. Indeed, here what starts the plot off isn't gambling or a bereaved mistress but a water supply scandal and its cover-up in Los Angeles; there isn't either a femme fatale, although there's romance involved and the ending of the movie is one to remember. It's been rubber-stamped in my memory and It'll never go away. Not that I want it to.