Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and Hiring a Villain: A Movie Review

Director: Tsui Hark.

Writers: Kuo-fu Chen, Lin Qianyu (original story) and Jialu Zhang (screenplay).

When Chinese producer, director and writer Tsui Hark is heavily involved in a production, he often leaves a huge cinematic stamp on it and the international world pays attention. The last film he directly worked on was Seven Swords (2005), which borrowed on some ideas from Akira Kurosawa's Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai). But these days, his most recent work that’s getting noticed is Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Although Hark is not involved in the writing of this detective mystery thriller, his trademark for phantasmagorical storytelling and gorgeously framed visuals is certainly consistent throughout. The only shame is the larger dependence on CGI in modern Hong Kong Cinema to recreate the sprawling cityscape around Daming Palace, which is the backdrop for most of this film. Also, not all of the characters have that larger-than-life presence just yet.

That fact is especially true when Detective Dee (Andy Lau, House of Flying Daggers) has not achieved the recognition that he will later be recognized for. Di Renjie, the real life official to whom the Dee character is based from, was highly respected.

Dee, in the film, is introduced as a bit of a scoundrel. He is still respected by a few people, and they have asked that he released from prison. He is the only person capable enough to go find the persons responsible for attempting to end the life of Empress Wu (Carina Lau, no relation). As the first female ruler of China, plenty of people have a reason to end her life. To have a female ruler is unheard of.

To not include some spectacular Kung Fu action goes without saying. Sammo Hung does the choreography, and he shows that he is in better form behind the scenes. He had some modest success in North America with Martial Law, but he eventually returned to Hong Kong to continue making movies there.

With the unique culture of Hong Kong Films making its own mark throughout the years, and later getting wider international appeal, Detective Dee is almost as famous as Sherlock Holmes. Orientalist and writer Robert Hans van Gulik popularized this character with 17 novels that ran from the 50's to the 60's. Some of these tales contained supernatural themes and they depicted life in the Teng Dynasty.

In the film, the same themes get imagined again with some high quality matte work that blends seamlessly with the cinematography. The early Chinese dynasties always had a romantic flavour in its colourful decor and the production team went all out with this one. The costumes are recreated with a high attention to detail and the mystique of the Royal Court is as mysterious as the people who work in council there. But when one of them has a secret agenda, that's when the plot kicks into high gear.

Dee has to figure out how the victims, who are closely associated with the Empress, burst into dark smoke. There has to be a logical explanation to it. He does not believe in black magic even though he is gifted with a psychic like ability to read others and look past their lies. Like Holmes, he has to make logical deductions and also find the source of the mysterious fire turtle. Somehow they tie into this mystery. But with Empress Wu's most trusted right hand lady, Jing-Er (Li Bingbing), his investigation gets hindered. Also, there is a white-haired officer Pei Donglei (Deng Chao) who is tailing behind with his own investigation. Chao is this film's rising star, and to see him appear in a world stage is a must. Hair-colour notwithstanding, his acting ability shines with this production. He gives his role as an officer of the Supreme Court an air of authority, which is very convincing.

When the two investigators become a team, the answers they uncover ring true for any country. There are dark political agendas at work here, whether Dee likes it or not. Sadly, Dee will just have to become another crusader who can only work in the depths of a dark night to right certain injustices. The fire turtle's curse is a terrible one indeed, but at least he is not ready to turn superhero.

This film is making limited engagements in select cities, and is also available on DVD/Bluray.

Overall: 7 out of 10.

Another review at Time:

Detective Dee at Time

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Posted in: 2011,china,crime thriller,film festival,horror movie dvd release,mystery,suspense