Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Fantasy crime

China

Pinnacle Films

DVD and Blu-Ray

R4 DVD

Chinese with English subtitles

Apparently Detective Dee is a famous Chinese historical character whose previous appearances have been limited to comic books and anime. Director Tsui Hark has now brought him to the big screen in this action-and-spectacle film.

It is set in the sixth century AD. The would-be Empress Wu’s husband has died and she intends to usurp the throne over her son. She would be China’s first woman Emperor. There is much opposition to this among the nobility. Empress Wu has ordered a huge statue built in her honour. Work on it must be finished before her coronation. Or else. The trouble is that some of the leading men involved are spontaneously combusting. Is this a plot against the Empress, or some sort of revenge by the Gods? When Pei, her top investigator, can make no headway in the investigation, she has only one option left.

Eight years earlier she had imprisoned one of her police officials, Di Renjie (known as Detective Dee). He had mistakenly expressed anti-Empress sentiments when the Emperor died and suggested that the Empress may have had something to do with the death. He was accused of plotting revolt against her. Now officially rehabilitated, Dee must find out the cause of the combustions. He is given the help of Pei and the Empress’s favourite guard, a girl named Wan’er.

Dee’s underground contacts point him to the unfortunately named Donkey Wang, who tells him of a rare beetle called a Fire Turtle. The beetle’s venom can enter the body through a sting, or it can be dissolved in water. The official who combusted inside the statue was drinking copiously because of the heat and only caught fire when he went out into the sunlight. The beetles were thought to be extinct but it appears someone is breeding them.

As Dee and his offsiders fight their way through the investigation it becomes obvious that there is a deeper plot as well. The Empress trusts nobody and has planted spies everywhere. She has good reason for her suspicions. It all comes to a head inside the huge statue where there is as much Indiana Jones-style action as you could want. The outcome will decide the position of the Empress as well as the future of China, for if she dies China will plunge once again into civil war.

The film is much what we have come to expect from Chinese films. There is lots of swordplay, talking homicidal deer, lovely scenery and sets and beautiful costuming, not to forget some of the silliest hats ever seen. The effects are spectacular and give the film a far bigger look than its budget would indicate. This one is a great piece of entertainment.

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