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| Detective Dee-The Mystery of Phantom Flame |
Another wonderful, should not be missed, Director Tsui Hark's work of art. The movie is a combination of Chinese History (with some creative fantastical twist), Chinese Tradition, Majestic Architectures, Spectacular Sceneries, myths & mysteries, crime solving, and lots of KungFu actions and stunts... Simply Magnificent!!!
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| Kudos to Producer Director Screenwriter Tsui Hark |
The mystery of the "Phantom Flame" seems to have adopted the idea from the mystery of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC), and the scene of sailing in the Black Market kinda reminds me of a scene from "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" where Percy Jackson and friends took a sail to hell, but nevertheless, the scene was equally spectacular...
I really like the idea of introducing the Dragon Mace as an imperial weapon gifted to Detective Dee from the deceased former emperor, it kinda brings Detective Dee's status in the dynasty to a higher level, as a Chinese Mace is a weapon which looks more like a cubical metal rod without any sharp edges as it wasn't meant to cause much harm but supposedly used as a disciplinary tool for advisory personnel or wise men. And Sammo Hung did another great job with another fight choreography again. Like a kid, I almost urged myself to imitate those impressive kicks & punches while I was sitting there watching the movie.
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| Sammo Hung, masterful KungFu Choreographer, despite his age & physique, he is extremely agile... |
The makeup artists & costume designers had also done a great job, especially with Carina Lau's character as Empress Wu who appeared with several superb looking hairdo, though sometimes her eyebrows makeup looks funny. In my opinion, these costumes could have been great trend setters during that era...
All the acting was great. I've watched numerous shows by Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li BingBing and Tony Leung Ka-Fai before, but I didn't have any impression of Deng Cao's shows, and am impressed with his acting in the movie too, he did really well in it. Li BingBing is as beautiful as ever, love her sweet gorgeous looks, and she acted well with those emotional struggles of her character in the movie. Andy Lau played well, nevertheless with his star qualities, portraying a handsome looking Detective Dee who's very intelligent & also good in KungFu, but overall, I'd still prefer the Detective Dee played by Kent Cheng in the HongKong Drama Series "盛世仁杰" as the character of Detective Dee in the TV Drama actually focus more in Detective Dee's intelligence instead of any good looks or good KungFu, which I think was more down to earth...
To sum it up, go watch the movie, it's a good movie & well worth your time & money.
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| Kent Cheng played a well-fed & KungFu-less Detective Dee |
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