Détective Dee II : La Légende du dragon des mers

Legendary Hong Kong director Tsui Hark returns to the Tang Dynasty Sherlock Holmes character which, three years ago, gave his then-flailing film career a much needed shot in the arm. A prequel that sees Taiwanese actor Mark Chao stepping into the titular role once played so memorably by Andy Lau, 'Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon' also sees Tsui Hark building on his much-lauded maiden stereoscopic movie 'Flying Swords of Dragon Gate' by delivering a 3D spectacle that puts many of its Hollywood counterparts to shame. Yes, this is one of the rare films which boast of the 3D format that we will actually recommend paying to extra dollars just to see it with a pair of glasses on - and that is, we may add, from watching the 2D version no less.

Following a rousing prologue that sees the mighty navy of the Tang Dynasty decimated at sea by a massive underwater creature, Chao's opening narration establishes the time and place of the events that follow. It is 665 AD, the joint reign of Emperor Gaozong (Sheng Chien) and the Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau) during a time when the country is at war with the Fuyu kingdom. Dee is set to take a job as a magistrate at the Dalisi based in the capital of Luoyang, an organisation whose mission is to keep the peace and investigate any disturbances.

No thanks to the superstition of the common folk, the beautiful courtesan Yin Ruiji (Angelababy) is held as sacrifice to the sea monster at a temple. After he lip-reads a plot by some bad men to hold her ransom, Dee rushes to her rescue, only to be confronted by a human-like reptilian beast that slips away in the melee. Unfortunately for Dee, he isn't that lucky, his initiative to take action on his own earning the wrath of the head of the Dalisi, Yuchi Zhenjin (Feng Shaofeng), who throws him into prison.

Dee's rivalry with Yuchi is one of the recurring themes of the story, which pits the two as intellectual equals racing to crack the case before Zetian has the latter's head for incompetence. It is in prison that Dee meets the Uighur prison doctor Shaluo Zhong (Lin Gengxin), who will become an effectual sidekick Dee relies on for advice - especially as it becomes clear that the explanations he seeks to the phenomena going on around them are medical in nature.

Reunited with his 'Dee' scribe Zhang Jialu, Tsui Hark spins an intriguing mystery revolving around a nefarious conspiracy to overthrow the entire kingdom and its noblemen by an obscure fishing tribe known simply as the Dongdoers. Tsui's penchant for the fantastical remains intact here; and while the earlier 'Dee' had a talking deer, this one figures to throw in a white horse that can swim above and under water on its way to uncovering the origins of the 'Kraken'-like gargantuan monster as well as the half-human, half-reptile animal that seems obsessed with Ruiji. Granted that it does require some suspension of disbelief on the part of its viewer, but Tsui ultimately leaves no stone unturned in rationalising every single detail of his twisty plot.

More so than in the first 'Dee' movie, this one finds Tsui on a much more assured directorial footing juggling a detective story with a good bit of palace intrigue and even tongue-in-cheek humour thrown in for good measure. One of the most amusing bits of the movie is the antidote Shaluo and his master (Chen Kun) comes up with to purge the palace officials of the parasitic infestation taking root in them, a truly delightful little detail that Tsui even uses to end the movie on a high note in a special scene in the middle of the closing credits. Tsui's storytelling is brisk and engaging from start to finish, connecting the dots ever so fluidly from clue to clue as he pieces together a mesmerising tapestry of schemes and secrets.

Enabling his work at top form is an excellent technical team, most notably Kenneth Mak's exquisite production design, Lee Pik-kwan's opulent costumes and Bruce Yu's overall immaculate image design. It is as sumptuous a period epic as you have ever seen, and a most exciting one at that thanks to veteran action director Yuen Bun's cornucopia of gravity-defying wire-ful sequences. Bun and Lam Feng's choreography here most resembles that of Tsui's earlier 'wuxia' pictures, their integration with plenty of impressive CGI work clearly a product and testament of Tsui's vivid - and rather awe-inspiring - imagination that had also undoubtedly conceived the action in 3D right from the get-go.

Amid the visual spectacle, it is to the actors' credit that their characters remain more than one-dimensional. Feng does solid work as the stern Yuchi whose initial strong distrust of Dee gives way to admiration and even respect. Carina Lau doesn't have much screen time as the Empress, but where she appears, is never less than captivating in her regalness. But perhaps the greatest surprise here is Chao, who tempers Andy Lau's showiness with quiet charisma and wry intelligence that gives the titular character a more down-to-earth but no less humbling stature.

And once again therefore, Tsui Hark is back at the very top of his game with yet another outing of this Tang Dynasty sleuth. Coupling a finely spun mystery with splendid visuals and spellbinding martial arts action, Tsui cements his 'Dee' franchise as Asia's answer to Guy Ritchie's 'Sherlock Holmes'. Indeed, the title of this movie is a befitting metaphor of Tsui's own work here, he the metaphorical sea dragon that has risen from the depths of his own doldrums to set the gold standard in blockbuster entertainment for Chinese cinema.

The vase is beautiful and the music is pleasant. Unfortunately, besides pretending to be mysterious, the story has no trap at all, that is, telling a story in a straight line. In other words, the best part of the film is the sketch of the ending story. If it's all finished, it's really a big series.

I watch a fair amount of Asian cinema so I've seen a lot. This movie really stands out!

First of all the quality and quantity of special effects are very good. The interaction between the main characters, the mix of dark story lines, and the humor suburb. Overall the underlying story is interesting and compelling.

It's great fantasy fun!

I'm surprised this movie doesn't have a higher rating and appears to have had not much of a presence here in America. It's too bad there is no English dubbed version (not that I know off), and, or, they just didn't market it enough for a Western audience. A lot of people will probably just bump into this movie late at night at one time or another and be pleasantly surprised.

If you like action movies, epic fantasy stories, etc., you are probably going to love this movie.

You have to have a soft spot for eastern movies and the fantasy world they are able to create. But then again, if you didn't why would you even bother watching or reading this, right? Maybe you are just curious because of the title. If that's the case, I'm not sure this is the best movie to start your "experience" with, but it is a very rock solid one and is entertaining.

The "detective" aspect is like an added bonus to the fight scenes and the humor that drives the movie throughout. The effects are pretty decent and fight scenes are very well choreographed. You don't have to have seen the previous movie to enjoy this either. A nice little movie to have fun with then

Tsui Hark is back again with his latest fantasy-action-drama-adventure-thriller epic - Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon, which serves as a prequel to Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame released in 2010.

The film tells how the young Dee rise to become a respectable detective for the Tang Dynasty, befriends the doctor Shaluo (similar to Sherlock Holmes and Watson) and his rival, Chief Commissioner/Detective Yuchi, unravels and solves an intriguing mystery case which involves a plot to assassinate the royal family and palace officials to overthrow the entire kingdom.

In order to fully enjoy the film, it requires some suspension of disbelief from the audience for some of the fantasy or action elements shown in the film such as riding a horse underwater, 'Kraken' beast, parasites that can change a person's looks and behaviour entirely, flying around fighting in the air, etc.

Although the wire-action choreography was great and well handled throughout the film, but the action scenes gets a little too much and it feels tedious to watch as the film moves on. It took away the focus of the mystery plot and a lot of potential character development required in the film. However, most of the lead and supporting actors did a fine job in portraying their character roles.

The CGI has improved a lot and looked believable and realistic compared with past Chinese big budget films. Overall, it's still a watchable, entertaining Chinese big budget production comparable to Hollywood standards.