"It all makes sense in context." Is what you might say after the final moments of
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame come to a close. Because it really does, but a big part of why this film is so delightful is because of its frequent weird left turns it takes in plotting, in events, hell, even in costume and simple production design. There's not too much characterization, but with a plot this dense, and with so many setpieces, and time devoted to magical talking deer, there's understandably less time to focus on the 'who' when the 'why' takes so much time to unpack.
The film is a mystery with a plot that's every bit as complicated as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but tells it just as well as that Swedish movie but with a far greater emphasis on spectacle and assorted WTF-ery. On the eve of the first female emperor of China's ascendance to the throne, there's the nettlesome problem of some of her top vassals spontaneously combusting (yes, really), the to-be-emperor, at the behest of her most trusted advisor, a magical talking deer (yes, really), releases the nation's finest detective from his eight year prison stretch to unmask the criminals. And if you think I gave away too much, don't worry, that's just the first half-hour. It would be a conventional story of palace intrigue with occasional butt whoppings were it not for the diversions into tangents that only seem very strange before receiving some pseudo reasonable explanation later on.
Since much of the fun of this movie is in the oddness of its plot points, it'd be unfair to reveal any more of them. I can say that there's an awful lot of well staged action scenes, beautiful production design, great special effects, and shocking and unguessable plot twists, its fun for and despite its oddities. The film even manages to make the requisite pro-China message that all mainstream Chinese films have seem organic, now that's an achievement. Despite all the weirdness its a classical styled mystery/adventure/blockbuster film, not unlike the Robert Downy Jr. starring Sherlock Holmes. I'd take this film over that every day of the week and twice on Sunday, as the saying goes.
4.5/5tl;dr -Tsui Hark is back, with an audacious yet conventional and fully entertaining movie.
