Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame
(2010)
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Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame
(2010)
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| Watch Trailer 0Share... |
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Tony Leung Ka Fai | ... |
Shatuo Zhong
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Chao Deng | ... |
Pei Donglai
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| Carina Lau | ... | ||
| Bingbing Li | ... |
Shangguan Jing'er
(as Li Bing Bing)
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| Andy Lau | ... | ||
| Jean-Michel Casanova | ... |
General Aspar
(as Michel)
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Sos Haroyan | ... |
Assistant to Umayyad Ambassador
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Jialin Zhao | ... |
Interpreter
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Yan Qin | ... |
Jia Yi
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Jinshan Liu | ... |
Xue Yong
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Aaron Shang | ... |
Shaizi
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Deshun Wang | ... |
Xiazi Ling
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Mickey He | ... |
Prison Officer
(as Shenming He)
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Lu Yao | ... |
Li Xiao
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Yanming Jiang | ... |
Undertaker
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In 689 A.D., the Empress Wu Zetian is building a 66 m high statue of Buddha for her inauguration as the first empress of China under the objections and conspiracy of the other clans. When the engineer responsible for the construction mysteriously dies by spontaneous combustion, the superstitious workers are afraid since the man removed the good luck charms from the main pillar. There is an investigation of Pei Donglai and another investigator that also dies after withdrawing the amulets. Empress Wu assigns her loyal assistant Shangguan Jing'er to release the exiled Detective Dee from his imprisonment to investigate with Donglai and Jing'er the mystery of the deaths. They ride in a mystic and epic adventure to unravel the mystery. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
It had been a while since I had seen a Tsui Hark movie. I now feel remiss in not better keeping up with his career.
Detective Dee is fantastic! The visuals are stunning. The sweeping, epic scenery and the HUGE set pieces transported me fully into the era of the Tang Dynasty. I was impressed by the CGI, often having trouble distinguishing where the real, physical parts of the set ended and the computer generated world began. The cinematography is superb.
The story was complex but still digestible. The filmmakers threw up enough red herrings to keep me guessing while making it believable that Detective Dee could solve the case without huge leaps in logic.
I found Andy Lau's performance effective, but was particularly impressed by Carina Lau who played Empress Wu. Her performance was both subtle and powerful. She was mesmerizing anytime she was on screen.
As for the fight scenes, well... wow. I mean, really, WOW! The complexity of the final fight between Dee and the person he figures out committed the crime made fight scenes in the Bourne series look like child's play. Seriously. Now, there was wire work - I know some people really dislike that stuff in Kung Fu style movies, but it really worked in this setting. I hope people will give this one a chance. I really thought Detective Dee was fantastic!