YOUNG DETECTIVE DEE: RISE OF THE SEA DRAGON
Wednesday, October 16, 2013 at 7:51AM Stars: Mark Chao, Kun Chen, Angelababy, Shaofeng Feng, Dong Hu, Carina Lau, Lin Gengsheng.
Writers: Zhang Jialu and Tsui Hark.
Director: Tsui Hark.
Rating: 3.5/5
Though it strains ones willingness to suspend disbelief at an over-indulgent 133 minutes, action maestro Tsui Hark’s prequel to his 2010 hit is nevertheless a dazzling adventure fantasy with more than enough ‘wow’ moments to woo international audiences.
Gone is leading man Andy Lau, who stoically embodied the first incantation of the enigmatic Dee, a solid hero-figure best described as a mash-up of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones with more than a dash of Eastern mysticism and inscrutability. In his place as the younger embodiment of our hero is strapping Taiwanese heart-throb Mark Chao, a suitably engaging if slightly too minimalist presence; Lau was square-jawed but with depth behind his eyes, whereas Chao appeal is slightly more superficial.
Hark and co-writer Zhang Jialu convolute a typically grand narrative structure to back up the vastness of their visuals (it is the director’s first use of stereoscopic technology, an advent that DOP Jimmy Choi grabs with obvious glee). Set 24 years before the events of the first film, …Rise of the Sea Dragon opens with the spectacular destruction of a Tang Dynasty naval armada by a largely unseen force from the ocean depths. Biding time as a mid-level investigator in the royal corp known as the Da Lisi and under the command of tough leader Zhenji (Feng Shaofeng), Dee is employed by the chilly Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau) to get to the briny bottom of the mystery.
But Dee and his ‘Watson’, Satuo Zhong (Lin Gengxin), are soon distracted by the sad story of virginal courtesan Ruiji Yin (Angelababy), whose true-love, tea merchant Mr Yuan (Ian Kim) had been deviously infected with a parasite that turned him into a underwater beasty (resembling part Creature from The Black Lagoon, part Dan Aykroyd’s monster-character from Twilight Zone The Movie). The plot continues to swirl off into weird and wacky directions, exemplified by the discovery that the cure-all for parasitic infection is to drink the urine of young men (don’t ask) and almost always resulting in wildly inventive wire-work action.
Hark’s film may stumble outside of its homeland in its reliance upon period iconography and a densely detailed political milieu. The Tang Dynasty was a period of enormous growth for the region (artistry, industry and sociological definition all developed at a cracking pace in 7th Century China) and it is to the production’s credit that so much sumptuous detail is on display. But such dedication to real-world historical minutiae in a film that also features a horse that runs underwater and a Kraken-like sea-monster often results in some jarring juxtaposition; one is left wondering, ‘Should my brain be on or off now?’
Where Young Detective Dee… and the veteran filmmaker at its helm leaves nothing to doubt is in the realm of the spectacular. Easily on par with any of the effects-laden tentpoles from the LA industry of late, Tsui Hark’s finely attuned vision of epic fantasy consistently bewilders the senses.
Reader Comments (1)
Don't try to put down a Chinese historical character by citing a western one(if historical at all). The former was there long before there is culture at some parts of the world.