Review of Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010) by Jean-Francois V — 15 Jul 2012

This film is about thrice removed from reality. There was a magistrate and statesman of the Tang court who was called Di, who was turned into a folk novel hero in the XVIIIth century and rediscovered by western scholar Robert Van Gulik, who himself wrote further fictional tales about him. Tsui Hark kept the name and the period, but transformed the whole thing into a C.G.I martial arts extravaganza, complete with kickboxing deer, robots, shapeshifters and a buddhist statue taller than the Petronas towers.

The whole thing is completely absurd, mindless and shallow but does entertain, in a very regressive sort of way.