Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010) is a tightly plotted murder mystery, full of beautiful cinematography, wonderful costumes, well-drawn characters, captions, and a theme having to do with the sacrifices principle can demand of you.
During the Chinese Tang Dynasty, a scruple-free, ambitious woman of the royal family has found her way to the edge of becoming the first Empress of China, and, towards this end, she has commissioned the creation of a great statue, a colossus. A tremendous achievement, it stands before the coronation stand, an integral part of the upcoming installation of the empress.
A ceremony imperiled when a member of the royal household, on an inspection tour, suddenly bursts into flames, dying in a most horrible manner. Of course, such people are somewhat rife in all royal households – it’s like dead bodies and maggots – but when the chief penal officer meets a similar fate, the imminent empress decides a formal investigation must take place, as performed by the best.
And that would be Detective Dee.
The traitor, Detective Dee.
Dee is immediately at hazard, as he is assaulted in his place of imprisonment, but escapes unharmed, accepts his assignment from this woman he had revolted against, and sets off to discover who can cause people to burst into flames, and how.
And that’s only if he can survive royal intrigue himself. Because, I’ll tell you, his assistants, as able as they are, find themselves under almost-constant assault. Dee makes progress, but at costs both tangible and intangible, and it’s the latter that make this a good story, bringing into sharp relief the individual costs of honor. But, as Dee discovers, there’s more going on here than just a few murders.
There’s the rupture of tradition.
In terms of negatives, I only identified one definite scene which I thought was unlikely within the context of the story, as it delivered to Dee a key clue but didn’t make sense for the antagonist to indulge in. I must also add there’s a fair bit of magical kung fu shit, but it’s manageable and even fun. The real point of this movie is the story it tells, the themes it explores, and not the wild ‘n crazy fight scenes. In some ways, they function like humor in a horror movie, accentuating the theme, rather than obscuring it.
If you like a tight plot and don’t mind reading captions, or if you speak Mandarin, take a couple of hours and a bowl of popcorn and enjoy this one.
