Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings

The story is a complex, multi-character excerise in episodic storytelling. Thre is a full-bodied saga that unfolds in "The Four Heavenly Kings" that offers rich, creative characters drawing on layered back story that, although implied for a lot of the characters, very much recognizable and clear. The main cast give stellar performances potraying what has to be as fascinating a mythos as Disney's fairytale collection.

The special effects are extravagant, over-the-top displays that show a strong desire to "one up" Hollywood, and to a degree Bollywood" , producing a true to score blockbuster experience. I have to say that Tsui pulls it off marvelously. Obviously money wasn't a concern. Think ABC's 'Once Upon A Time' meets -well- Hong Kong! Overall "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings" is a beautifully filmed fantasy tale of mythical mastery.

The scale and texture of special effects have surpassed the previous one, which is a benchmark in the industry, but it is somewhat radical compared with the first episode. Personally feel that if the film is made into a pure fantasy movie, it will be more in line with the original idea of the director Hark Tsui, and will be more reasonable and exciting. Because the imagination is limited by the existing script, many of the topics worth exploring are ultimately designed to showcase the background of special effects. In addition, the lack of persuasive performances remains a major issue in the film.

'Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings' is the third in this series of Chinese kung fu films, after the original 'Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame' back in 2010 and 'Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon' (2013). The plot follows Dee (Chao) as he leads an ancient FBI and his friendship/rivalry with Yuchi (Feng) and mentorship of Shatuo (Lin), as they try to protect/hide the Dragon Taming Mace, which has powers (like Excalibur).

Despite the four 'heavenly kings' of the title, they barely make an appearance or have an impact on the story. Rather, it's all about sorcery and a clan (the "Wind Warriors") who want to topple the dynasty. The sorcery aspect means there's plenty of special effects, most of it really well done. The dragon and the battle at the end are exceptional. Even the "illusionists", including Water Moon (Ma), are pretty cool.

There's still some mystery and police work for Dee to solve, but it's also merged well with the sorcery and political intrigue with the Empress and Emperor. It's well paced, not too long, with some funny moments and, obviously has excellent stunts and fight-scene choreography that's more than worth the price of admission. It all adds up to a fun ride!

If you don't speak Chinese and appreciate visual effects like me, then this movie would be an entertaining movie while having popcorn and sometimes checking your phone. I have watched plenty of Chinese movie recently and I can see they are getting to the highest level in terms of VFX. This one is one the best so far.

Story wise, not bad. You don't expect that much, but in total I am fine spending 2 hours in cinema.

Detective Dee (Mark Chao) heads the Bureau of Investigation in Tang Dynasty China; as a result of his protection of the kingdom earlier (in "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame," 2010) the Emperor entrusts to him the Dragon Taming Mace, a weapon so powerful that it will serve to save the nation if needed. Unfortunately, the Empress (Carina Lau) doesn't trust Dee and, really, wants to assume complete power for herself, so she instructs one of the royal guard, Yuchi (Feng Shaofeng), to steal the Mace from Dee, knowing that Yuchi and Dee are long-time close friends and relying upon that friendship to turn to betrayal. Meanwhile, there are a number of clans of wizards who use illusion and sometimes magic to further their own ends, in particular to overthrow the Tang Dynasty....The above description only covers the relatively "normal" part of the story; throw in a bunch of seriously ugly monsters, a heavy dose of wuxia martial arts (fighters climbing the air as if it was a staircase, etc.), an extremely serene Buddhist, a totally unhinged Empress and, well, a love story between a doctor and an assassin, plus tons of sword fights and action all over the place, and you have the latest Detective Dee tale. By the way, the Four Heavenly Kings of the title feature in exactly one scene as statues, some of which are destroyed in the scene, and are never mentioned again. Go figure. I liked it all, a fitting end for 2018's Montreal FantAsia Film Festival for me!