Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Plot

In year 689 of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian is to be crowned the first Empress in China despite opposition from Tang officials. She has a Buddha figure built overlooking her palace in Luoyang, but an official inspecting the progress mysteriously erupts into flames. Penal officer Pei Donglai and his superior investigate and interrogate the supervising builder, Shatuo, who was formerly imprisoned after he took part in a rebellion. They find nothing and Pei's superior dies soon after erupting into flames.

The Empress orders former detective and rebel Di Renjie be released from prison after the Imperial Abbot states that he must solve the mystery of the fire. She sends her attendant Shangguan Jing'er to fetch Di from prison, where they are attacked by assassins. Wu reinstates Di as the royal detective and assigns Jing'er to be both an assistant and spy. Jing'er attempts to seduce Di, but is interrupted by assassins. Di meets Prince Li, who fails to recruit him into leading a rebel army. When Pei takes Di and Jing'er to inspect the charred corpses, Di deduces the assassins use a poison that ignites upon contact with sunlight.

Pei joins Di in his investigation. Di reunites with his friend Shatuo, who suspects the poison to be the venom of "fire beetles". He points Di to Donkey Wang, who is hiding in a network of caverns called the Phantom Bazaar. Pei orders Shatuo arrested for not telling him of this before, but Di stops him. At the Phantom Bazaar, Di, Pei, and Jing'er are attacked by a figure who seems to be the Imperial Abbot. After Jing'er and Pei fight him, Pei pursues him to the Abbot's forbidden residence. Donkey Wang reveals that he was the court physician and tried to use fire beetles as medicine. Finding their true danger, he disguised his appearance using acupoints and fled.

Prince Li returns Di's mace to him, which was taken after he was imprisoned. Di maintains his political neutrality, and Li is assassinated soon after. Di suspects the Abbot's involvement, but Wu warns him that he will be killed if attempts to enter the monastery. Pei finds the first inspector discovered something in his inspection and takes the diagrams, but he is taken captive. At the monastery, Di learns that the Imperial Abbot is Jing'er disguised using acupoints. Di speculates that the Empress used the Imperial Abbot to justify her tyranny. Jing'er attacks Di but is unable to kill him. She stumbles into several traps set by the assassins and is mortally wounded. Di fulfills her final request by sending her back to court, and she dies in the Empress's arms.

Di finds Pei but is unable to save him. He directs Di to the diagrams, which implicate Shatuo, whom he confronts at the Buddha. Shatuo plans to kill the Empress by collapsing the Buddha upon the palace as revenge. He killed the officials after they noticed his changes to the Buddha and killed Prince Li for insulting him. He took the late Prince Li's army to invade and kill Wu if she survives. As Di and Shatuo fight, Di is drenched in poison. Di is able to divert the statue, and Shatuo heads to the coronation to poison Wu. Di catches up with Shatuo and spills it on him instead, causing him to burn to death in the sun.

Di saves Wu from the collapsing statue and warns her of Prince Li's rebel army. The Empress promises to be a just ruler and to return power to the Tang Dynasty when her reign ends. Refusing Wu's offer of a place in her court, Di resigns as inspector and retreats into the Phantom Bazaar, where he will struggle to live on with Donkey Wang and the incurable poison.

Cast

Production

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, directed by Tsui Hark, who is also a co-producer with his wife, the Chinese production company Huayi Brothers (also the film's distributor) and production company Film Workshop (the 50th feature film produced by the company).

The screenplay was written by Chen Kuofu, the Chinese screenwriter of the 2008 films Forever Enthralled and If You Are the One. When asked to direct the film. Tsui said that he would only direct the project if he could make adjustments to the script, which he did. Tsui never divulged most of the changes that he made to the original script, but did mention that the character Shangguan Jing'er was previously a man. Fight choreography and art direction for the film was handled by Sammo Hung.

Pre-production

Prior to filming Detective Dee, Tsui had spent years doing research on stories concerning real life Tang Dynasty official Di Renjie. Chen Kuofu first approached Tsui with a screenplay based on the life of Di Renjie.

Tsui first announced production plans in 2008, while promoting his previous film, All About Women, at the 13th Pusan International Film Festival. At the time, Tsui had pondered on whether to make Detective Dee or remake the 1966 film Dragon Gate Inn.

Casting

For the lead role as Di Renjie, Tsui originally had Tony Leung Ka-fai, along with Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and Jet Li in mind. Li mentioned while promoting Tsui's other film, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, that he had a chance to read the script though he wasn't able to be part of the project due to some unknown reason. Tsui commented on choosing an actor to play Di Renjie: "Who said that Di Renjie must be plump and old? He could also be very handsome. Wits and looks can balance one another." On 5 January 2009, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Andy Lau would star in the lead role. On 29 April 2009, it was announced that Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Deng Chao and Tony Leung Ka-fai would appear in supporting roles.

Filming

Principal photography for Detective Dee began in May 2009, with a budget of $20 million; the film was shot using Red One digital cameras in Zhejiang, China at Hengdian World Studios, which is one of the largest film studios in the world. Detective Dee has been described as one of Tsui's most personal films to date. During production, Tsui would reportedly work consistently on the set, barely getting enough sleep.

Action direction

Sammo Hung served as an action director for the film and his stunt team built eight platforms (12 meters tall) in the cave for three days of wire work. The record was over 70 wires for one scene. One of the sculptures was an 80-metre bust of Empress Wu Zetian, a key element of the film that cost $12 million HKD to design and decorate. During production, reporters were invited to enter the bust's interior, which included a 12 meter tall circular platform. Outside of the platform hung red and white drapes that were full of scriptures.

Fight choreography

Detective Dee's martial arts sequences were choreographed by Sammo Hung, who worked extensively alongside actors Andy Lau and Li Bingbing. Tsui chose Hung as a choreographer, feeling that his work had shades of Bruce Lee. Of the fight sequences for the film, Tsui commented that they would be similar to that of Ip Man, as they would aim for realism with actual punches and kicks. This would prove difficult for actors who had no martial arts experience. Of the two actors, Li had no experience in martial arts, and her role required that she use various weapons in the film such as a whip and a sword.

Reception

China Daily placed the film on their list of the best ten Chinese films of 2010. Time Magazine considered it the third best film of 2011, after The Artist and Hugo. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 81% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10.