Chinatown

In the sweltering heat of 1937 Los Angeles, Detectives like private investigator Jake Gittes eke out a living amidst the city's moral squalor. Operating on the fringes of respectability, men like Gittes often find themselves entangled in the complex, if not illicit, dealings of the city's affluent elite. When Evelyn Mulwray, a stunning and seemingly fragile socialite, approaches Gittes with a proposal that he uncover evidence of her husband's infidelity, the detective, ever the opportunist, sees the potential for easy pay and lucrative favor. Without hesitation, Jake Gittes agrees to take on the job. Evelyn provides him with a photograph of her husband in compromising circumstances and claims that he is engaging in a torrid affair with a young woman. Feeling certain that he has the upper hand, Gittes is subsequently hired by Hollis Mulwray, Evelyn's ostensibly oblivious husband, to steal the photographs to prevent a public scandal. Caught in the middle, Gittes begins to accumulate a stack of evidence pointing to the affair, all the while collecting a handsome paycheck for the ill-gotten goods. Meanwhile, Jake's profession becomes entwined with that of Crawford Woodmansee, a friend and fellow private investigator, as they often share information about their respective clients. One crucial piece of information catches Woodmansee's attention – Hollis is an engineer and is on the verge of unveiling a massive, high-cost infrastructure project in Southern California: the construction of a dam on the Los Angeles River to supply fresh water to the growing population of Los Angeles. As Gittes's investigation unwinds, he delves deeper into the depths of the city's power structure. The city's city attorney, a man named Dudley Yuncker, seems to be in cahoots with Evelyn and Hollis, ensuring that any and all potential threats to their relationship and their lucrative dam project remain under wraps. However, an enigmatic Noah Cross, with whom Evelyn has an undeniable connection, seems to be hiding matters of unimaginable gravity. It swiftly becomes apparent that Evelyn may well be hiding herself the truth – she seems extremely reluctant to acknowledge Noah in her existence. Their interaction can only be described as distant, so distant that one starts to think that Cros's affair with Evelyn might not be as seemingly logical as they assumed. A bombshell falls when Hollis Mulwray turns up dead in the course of a press conference announcing the Los Angeles river dam, his body showing significant mutilation. Suspicion inevitably falls upon Gittes. The truth dawns that Mulwray died from water intoxication in the Los Angeles River reservoir during the public unveiling in a death perceived as a public spectacle to mask his killer. Haunted by the mystery and his own misplaced sense of dignity, Gittes must reconcile with his own fallibility and the complex circumstances surrounding Evelyn and Hollis. With the stakes higher than ever, Gittes must untangle the intricate web of deceptions and personal scandals, not to solve a crime, but to rediscover the truth, which lies shrouded in the depths of human despair and malice.