Detective Dee e i quattro Re celesti

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!

'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!

I missed my chance to see the earlier Judge Dee movie, but I assumed that this and it were historical mysteries derived from the work of Robert van Gulik. Apparently there was a Dee during the Tang dynasty who was a judge and an imperial courtier. During the Ming dynasty, there were some folk novels about him, and this tradition fell into van Gulik's hands. His novels about this investigative judge were popular enough that others wrote further sequels after his death, and I assumed this was derived from one of those.

I was wrong. Although within the first few minutes, Mark Chao was on the scene of the crime as Dee making acute observations, it soon turned into a fantasy movie about magic maces, wicked empresses, court intrigue, evil Indian sorcerers and monks who are so good they'll let the world go to heck in a handbasket before they'll interrupt their quests for enlightenment.

Plus fiery demons and dragons and such, and it was at that point I began to wince. I enjoy a lot of fantasy movies, and many CGI special effects are well done, but there are film makers who seem convinced that if you render your impossible chimera in sufficient detail, the audience will accept it as real. There may indeed be audience members who feel that way, and they may be numerous enough to make a fine audience for the commercial art that is cinema. Alas for me, I am not part of that particular audience and if you show me something that doesn't exist and render it in sufficient detail to look real.... well, it starts to look cartoonish to me, like a Rube Goldberg alarm clock or what you get when you cross a hippopotamus with an abacus. "That's very nice, but why did you go to such trouble?" is my emotional reaction, as I tap my foot and wait impatiently for the fiery people to stop flying through the air so the movie can get on with it.

It seems a pity, because there are some lovely production values in this movie, in set design and costuming, camerawork and editing seem well covered and the actors hit their marks and seem to speak their lines well -- it's in Mandarin, so I have to rely on subtitles. There's also not a particle of doubt in my mind that if I had gone in knowing I was going to be looking at a fantasy instead of a mystery, I would not have been so disappointed.

Except by the continuing belief that spending lots of money on incredibly elaborate special effects can make up for foolish plotting. I'm sorry about that, but it can't.

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.

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.