Fresh
It is a peculiar conflation of history -- there really was an Empress Wu -- and pure cinematic fantasy.
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
The Fate of an Empire Is in His Hands.
2010 · 2h 3m · PG-13
Action, Adventure, Drama, Mystery
Directed by
Tsui Hark
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Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Overview
When the future empress Wu Zetian's two courtiers die in a mysterious fire, she gets Di Renjie, a former detective and rebel, released from prison to solve the mystery of the fire.
Director and cast
- Tsui Hark Director
- Andy Lau Tak-wah as Detective Dee
- Li Bingbing as Shangguan Jing'er
- Deng Chao as Pei Donglai
- Tony Leung Ka-fai as Shatuo Zhong
- Carina Lau as Wu Zetian
- Richard Ng Yiu-hon as Wang Lu (before face-lift)
- Teddy Robin as Wang Lu (after face-lift)
- Liu Jinshan Cast
- Yao Lu Cast
- Wang Deshun Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
80%
Tomatometer
Rotten
By the end, with the running time pushing past the two-hour mark, it's reasonable to ask: Just who are these people?
John Hartl, Seattle Times
Fresh
Detective Dee is the action flick of the year, a two-hour epic that blows the Pirates of the Caribbean to the Bermuda Triangle.
Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail
Rotten
"Dee" doesn't shoot for the gravitas of Zhang Yimou's "Hero." It doesn't approach that film's magnificent sensory impact, either, or the artistic romanticism that made "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" such a success here.
John DeFore, Washington Post
Fresh
Three decades into his career, Tsui Hark stands as one of the movies' great entertainers, displaying a dancer's sense of rhythm and movement and manipulating physical space with an abandon worthy of Chuck Jones.
Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader
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