Better Late Then Never

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I saw it and to me this isn't a Judge Dee story. It is a Kung Fu movie and not a great one at that. I'm sorry - if I want to see Kung Fu characters flying through the air on wires and doing physically impossible feats in a world of myth and magic then I'll look for it. What I wanted was a good Judge Dee story - a logical and intelligent deductive reasoning detective story set in a rich and fascinating Tang Dynasty world.I am a great fan of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee books. I had just read "The Phantom of the Temple" a few days before seeing this movie. What I had expected was a movie with a story line set in the world of Judge Dee and keeping in harmony with that world. They are intelligent whodunnits without an overbearing supernatural element. The TV movie "Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders" that was taken from "The Haunted Monastery" was quite enjoyable.Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame was a great disappointment. The story by Lin Qianyu was just not up to snuff. Unfortunately, so was the action. I've seen as good in TV shows like Andromeda.

I got a kick out of or from this film, and it's definitely better than a lot of what plays in movie cinemas. I looked at the movie listing for a local cinema that shows 9 movies every week, if not every day, some months ago. Not a single 1 of the 9 had/has any favorable reviews on the WWW; not among reviews I checked anyway. So, of course I didn't go. When paying around $9 to see a film, then it better be good.I will add a little commentary about the closing paragraph of the review posted by Harry T. Yung from Hong Kong.Quote: "While the main focus of this movie is entertainment, it does have a historical perspective as Wu, the first empress of China, is among the most controversial historical figures. One thought-provoking question would be that if a depot is capable and the people general benefit, does it really matter if he or she is fiendishly cruel and ruthless? The movie misses a good opportunity to underscore this theme for the audience to ponder over. In the final scene when Dee pleads with the villain not to assassin Wu, the reason he gives is that the method of assassination employed would mean killing a lot of innocent people in the process. The movie would have gone up a notch if, instead, Dee points out that despite Wu's short-comings (including, sigh, being a woman), she is the best ruler they had at the time, and killing her would be doing the entire empire a disservice." 1) "Wu's short-comings (including, sigh, being a woman)"? Ugh. Ya gotta be kidding. Why is being a woman a short-coming? 2) What's the real history related to this film's story? What's factually based about the empress and the detective, plus the character who wanted to assassinate the empress? (Of course I know that the CGI and wires stuff didn't exist in the true history.) This isn't a discussion forum, so the questions are rhetorical. If someone posted answers, then there's no way to be notified about this, so the questions unfortunately remain of rhetorical genre.

In 689 A.D., the Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau) 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 with a spontaneous combustion of his body, the superstitious workers are afraid since the man removed the good luck charms from the main pillar. There is an investigation of Pei Donglai (Chao Deng) and another investigator that also dies after withdrawing the amulets.Empress Wu assigns her loyal assistant Shangguan Jing'er (Li Bing Bing) to release the exiled Detective Dee (Andy Lau) 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. "Di Renjie" is a mystic and melodramatic adventure with a magnificent cinematography and wonderful choreography of fights. However, the plot entwines action with moments of soap-opera that might be culturally appreciated by Asian viewers, but absolutely boring and breaking the pace of the first-half of the film. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Detetive D e o Império Celestial" ("Detective D and the Celestial Empire")

SPOILERS - sorry I cannot review this without leaking major spoilers. You've been forewarned! I liked the film, but not enough to say I'd watch it over and over again. People here are giving it 8, 9, or 10 out of 10. I could only muster a 6.5 The directing is very good. Tsui Hark does a good job of moving the camera around, focusing on the action and the actors. The actors as a whole do a good job. Andy Lau does well as do all his costars. Worth noting is the performance by Carina Lau, both menacing, and authoritative as an empress struggling to retain her throne.But for me it's the storyline that fails this otherwise decent film. It's a detective story and there should be plot twists and turns. But here the obvious culprit is let off the hook for no real reason other than he knows the famed Detective Dee. The mystery part of it fails for me and in a mystery movie, that's pretty important.6.5/10