Andy Lau stars as Di Renjie in Tsui Hark's impressive DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME
DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME (DI RENJIE) (Tsui Hark, 2010)
Angelika Film Center
18 West Houston St. at Mercer St.
Opens Friday, September 2
212-995-2570
www.angelikafilmcenter.com
During the early Tang Dynasty in the late seventh century, Wu Zetian (Carina Lau sporting some great hairdos) is about to become the first empress of China. In preparation for her ascendance to the throne, architect Shatuo (Tony Leung Ka Fai) is leading the construction of a two-hundred-foot Buddha statue with her face, a massive structure that is like its own city inside. But when people start spontaneously combusting after a pair of amulets in the statue are moved, Wu calls in Detective Dee (Andy Lau sporting some great facial hair), who has been in prison for eight years for previously opposing her, to find out who is behind the horrific deaths. Dee is teamed up with Wu’s right-hand woman, Shangguan Jing’er (Li Bingbing), and albino warrior Donglai Pei (Deng Chao) to get to the bottom of the killings, which many believe is a curse not being perpetrated by humans. As the unlikely threesome gets closer to the answers, they become enmeshed in a series of battles featuring unusual weapons and unexpected twists and turns, not knowing whom they can trust, their lives in constant danger. Nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2010 Venice Film Festival and winner of six Hong Kong Film Awards (including Tsui Hark for Best Director, Carina Lau for Best Actress, and Phil Jones for Best Visual Effects), Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a fun and exciting old-fashioned wuxia tale, with exciting if repetitive action scenes directed by Sammo Hung and sumptuous production design by James Chiu. The inner workings of the enormous statue is a thing of beauty that has to be seen to be believed. A mix of actual and invented characters — there really was a Judge Dee (Di Renjie), who was turned into a detective hero in a series of novels by Dutch author Robert van Gulik — the film is a thrilling historical mystery epic that could have used a little more back story but is still a return to form for Hark. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame opens September 2 after having screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival earlier this year.
Based on a novel by Ma Shitu, Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly is a very funny action comedy set during the Warlord Era of the 1920s. After a train robbery doesn’t quite come off as planned, wanted gangster Pocky Zhang (Jiang) and his sidekicks team up with shady swindler Tang (Ge You) and a treasure-hunting woman (Carina Lau) to pose as the new county governor (Zhang) and his team, attempting to take over Goose Town and abscond with its money. But Goose Town already belongs to the crooked Huang Silang (Chow Yun-fat), who is not about to let Zhang take away what’s his. What follows is a goofy battle of wills that involves self-gutting, an idiot body double, some excellent gory violence, and lots of double entendres. A huge critical and commercial success in China, Let the Bullets Fly is way too long at 132 minutes, and the pacing often feels scattershot, perhaps the result of at least six screenwriters having poured out some thirty scripts before Jiang was ready to proceed. Jiang is wonderfully understated as Zhang, while Chow is a hoot as the local mobster whose domain is suddenly threatened. Filled with plenty of sly references and homages to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns, Let the Bullets Fly is a flawed but entertaining Chinese popcorner.