By Lee Hyo-won
With larger-than-life characters engaged in high-flying adventures in ancient China, “Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame” at first glance seems like yet another expensive, star-studded “wuxia” film.
The latest offering by Tsui Hark, however, features only a dab of adrenaline-pumping “Reign of Assassins”-style martial arts sequences; it is interestingly a whodunit story in the tradition of Agatha Christie that relies more on eye-popping, computer graphics-rendered “crime” scenes (created by the Korean talent of Park Chan-wook’s “Thirst”) rather than wire action (though the minimal scenes are cleverly devised, by none other than star actor-cum-director Sammo Hung).
The introduction of the detective element gives the conventional genre a new twist, and it works both ways depending on how you view it: a Sherlock Holmes type trotting around the exotic wonders of the Central Kingdom or wuxia heroes engaged in elaborate wire fu for reasons other else than revenge, romance or family honor.
The $13-million project, featuring a very prominent cast and makers with impressive pedigrees, has undoubtedly upgraded a genre film to a striking degree of fantasy. This is perhaps why it was chosen to compete at the Venice Film Festival, but one can’t help in discerning why it didn’t pick up a Golden Bear with its lack of character development and emotional tension.
Detective Dee is modeled after Di Renjie, a real imperial court judge who lived during the late-7th-century Tang Dynasty. During the 1950s, the historical figure became touted in the West as an Asian counterpart of Sherlock Holmes through a detective novel series by Robert Van Gulik.
The silver-screen adaptation is not based on one of the Dutch writer’s works but could well have been. Andy Lau brings a youthful ebullience to Judge Dee, who has been imprisoned by the emperor’s widow, Wu Zetian (Carina Lau).
Wu is about to become China’s first female ruler and a colossal Buddha statue is being erected in proximity of the palace for her grand coronation. A diplomat from the far West is given a tour inside the towering, 200-feet-high marvel of engineering genius. It’s one memorable opener, to take in the view of this ancient-era skyscraper of sorts, with a great column as a spine, moving mechanical parts and bridges and manual elevators crisscrossing the interior.
When the entourage climbs up to the face, taking in a view of the city through Buddha’s eyes, however, the engineer suddenly burns alive from a fire that seems to have started inside his own body. The horrified onlookers blame his sacrilegious handling of shamanist tokens, and a messenger sets out to inform the empress-to-be about divine intervention. However, the messenger himself dies of the same “self-combustion.”
Wu is given another supernatural calling to realize that the imprisoned Dee may be her only hope to solving the mystery. She sends her most trusted servant, the beautiful kung fu master Jing’er (Li Bingbing), to pardon him and release him from a miserable prison. His former title recuperated, Dee sets out to solve the puzzle, and is convinced that they are part of a complex intrigue to impede Wu’s future reign.
Joined by a ruthless young officer Pei Donglai (Deng Chao), the duo makes their way to various corners of the empire including a sinister, underground water city, and come across oddball characters including a beetle-eating master of disguise and the flying red Imperial Chaplain.
It must be said the production designs by James Chiu are imaginative, but it lacks the atmospheric grandeur of classic wuxia films. This quality reflects in the cartoonish storyline, but “Dee’s” strong fantasy appeal will nevertheless have video game addicts excited when it opens in local theaters on Oct. 7.