Detective Dee: Mystery Of The Phantom Flame - Blu-ray Review

'Martial Arts Adventure crossed with a Sherlock Holmes-esque Mystery'

Martial Arts Adventure crossed with a Sherlock Holmes-esque Mystery should be a recipe for success similar in potency to the time that person suggested to Mr. Lucas he should do a 'space opera'. Yet, somehow, director Hark Tsui comes dangerously close to making Detective Dee: Mystery Of The Phantom Flame an overacted, tiresome slog, with enough diversions to leave you pondering the meaning of life rather than the existence of a rogue piece of instantly flammable MacGuffin.

At one hundred and nineteen minutes, Detective Dee is too long by a good half hour or so, pushing the boundaries of how far an audience will go with a throwaway tale. Then the idiosyncrasies start to creep in too. There's a magical talking deer for one, poorly rendered in CGI, quickly followed by some odd directing choices for Tsui; all circle fades and odd cuts. Its distracting and, occasionally, twee.

Which is a shame, because when Dee is good it makes it to the level which its premise suggests it might attain. An attack on a house from a bunch of assassins with wall punching arrows is exciting action cinema writ-large, which Tsui makes the most of, whilst a trip to a River Styx-like underworld shows off the best of the set design which is occasionally pleasantly startling.

Andy Lau - always watchable - as Dee looks like he was cultivating a character which he could have held on to, although there's nothing to suggest a sequel is imminent. Something of a shame, given the interesting conclusion Tsui eventually manufactures.

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'It's memorable in its moments of weirdness and fun action, but the mystery isn't actually that great and the potentially interesting characters are under-used.' - Film Forager, 3.5/5