Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Joe There's some very good things to say about this film. Great set pieces, wonderful camera work and some very good actors. Colourful, historic and epic in its aims, with some great but not overly violent martial artistry.Yet for all that it ticks off on the list, it's just not very engrossing.The detective story is a bit convoluted and tries to marry magic, superstition, rationalism and surprise. Yet, it gets all a little too confusing and not something you can accept. I agree that you have to suspend disbelief, but you are meant to be figuring out the mystery and you just lose interest when some of the revelations are made. Some of it is clever but too left-field to admire.This is just a disappointment. I just couldn't get into this, I watched to the end and was left just underwhelmed. As said, I liked a number of things about this film, yet the sum of its parts is definitely not less than the whole.

Mike Corbeil I got a kick out of or from this film, and it's definitely better than a lot of what plays in movie cinemas. I looked at the movie listing for a local cinema that shows 9 movies every week, if not every day, some months ago. Not a single 1 of the 9 had/has any favorable reviews on the WWW; not among reviews I checked anyway. So, of course I didn't go. When paying around $9 to see a film, then it better be good.I will add a little commentary about the closing paragraph of the review posted by Harry T. Yung from Hong Kong.Quote: "While the main focus of this movie is entertainment, it does have a historical perspective as Wu, the first empress of China, is among the most controversial historical figures. One thought-provoking question would be that if a depot is capable and the people general benefit, does it really matter if he or she is fiendishly cruel and ruthless? The movie misses a good opportunity to underscore this theme for the audience to ponder over. In the final scene when Dee pleads with the villain not to assassin Wu, the reason he gives is that the method of assassination employed would mean killing a lot of innocent people in the process. The movie would have gone up a notch if, instead, Dee points out that despite Wu's short-comings (including, sigh, being a woman), she is the best ruler they had at the time, and killing her would be doing the entire empire a disservice." 1) "Wu's short-comings (including, sigh, being a woman)"? Ugh. Ya gotta be kidding. Why is being a woman a short-coming? 2) What's the real history related to this film's story? What's factually based about the empress and the detective, plus the character who wanted to assassinate the empress? (Of course I know that the CGI and wires stuff didn't exist in the true history.) This isn't a discussion forum, so the questions are rhetorical. If someone posted answers, then there's no way to be notified about this, so the questions unfortunately remain of rhetorical genre.

ryancohen24 This holiday season, Indomina invites you to share in the love, the laughter and the epic martial arts! This year Indomina released not just one, but four films full of the best in martial arts filmmaking. TRUE LEGEND, the latest film from action choreography master Yuen Woo Ping (The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill). CLASH, which the LA Times proclaims is "a dazzling Vietnamese martial arts movie with a soul, a stylish, gorgeously photographed film." BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS, an epic, action-packed historical drama with global superstar Donnie Yen (Blade II, Hero, Ip Man). DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME, Tsui Hark's latest wildly imaginative and heart pounding action film that had the critics raving. TIME magazine calls it "A Masterpiece!" and New York Magazine describes it as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets Sherlock Holmes...only a lot more fun!". Bring home all of these titles on Blu-ray or DVD for a special holiday! Visit Holidays.Indomina.com for more.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWqWqbzh0hU

pridemorek It had been a while since I had seen a Tsui Hark movie. I now feel remiss in not better keeping up with his career.Detective Dee is fantastic! The visuals are stunning. The sweeping, epic scenery and the HUGE set pieces transported me fully into the era of the Tang Dynasty. I was impressed by the CGI, often having trouble distinguishing where the real, physical parts of the set ended and the computer generated world began. The cinematography is superb.The story was complex but still digestible. The filmmakers threw up enough red herrings to keep me guessing while making it believable that Detective Dee could solve the case without huge leaps in logic.I found Andy Lau's performance effective, but was particularly impressed by Carina Lau who played Empress Wu. Her performance was both subtle and powerful. She was mesmerizing anytime she was on screen.As for the fight scenes, well... wow. I mean, really, WOW! The complexity of the final fight between Dee and the person he figures out committed the crime made fight scenes in the Bourne series look like child's play. Seriously. Now, there was wire work - I know some people really dislike that stuff in Kung Fu style movies, but it really worked in this setting. I hope people will give this one a chance. I really thought Detective Dee was fantastic!