Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Cinema Nova, 29/12/2010
Status: Behind by 2 films
PLACEHOLDER! Because I'm lazy! My 2011 New Year's resolution is to put in a proper review soon. Speaking of New Year's resolutions, let's check in and see how I'm travelling with my 2010 one:
I've 2 movies left to reach the magic 120 mark and one day left in the year in which to see them. But that's okay, because tomorrow is going to be windy and hot and yuck. Perfect for a end-of-year-double-bill-blow-out to bring this puppy home.
Edit, 02/01/2011:
Edit, 02/01/2011:
Here’s why I wanted to see Detective Dee and why I was disappointed:
- Kung Fu: The trailer promised me kung-fu, of which I am a fan. It turns out, however, that the trailer showed almost all of the kung-fu in the entire film. Other action set pieces were more interested in effects than fightin’, where I was quite the opposite.
- Period setting: Hong Kong films – for the most part at least – blissfully eschew computer-generated imagery and for historical stories, like this one set in 689 AD, build massive-scale sets out of polystyrene and plywood. Seems someone figured out their computer, though, and now the sets are all crappy CG and – even worse – so are the fight scenes, including one between Dee - a detective pitched somewhere between Hercule Poirot and Indiana Jones and played by ANDY LAU, Infernal Affairs, House of Flying Daggers - and a herd of animated buck deer. The deer, unfortunately, do not know kung-fu (see point 1, above).
- Tony Leung: I love Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs, In the Mood For Love) so, so much. Unfortunately, the Tony Leung in Detective Dee was not Tony Leung Chui Wai, but Tony Leung Ka Fai (Election) who I don’t so much love, as have never heard of.
In summary, Detective Dee is less a beautifully designed historical kung-fu film starring Tony Leung than a CG-heavy “mystery” starring the other Tony Leung. Which is quite the disappointment.
