Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon

If you enjoy eastern kungfu movies, this is a good one to watch. It has some plots in it as the "detective" name implies. The plots are not so deep, but does a decent job to make you keep guessing as to who is behind the evil plot and what will happen next. The fight scene is well choreographed and plots are pretty well tied together. The CGI is OK, not great when they try to do the ocean scenes, but much better on land fighting scenes. The slow-motion camera work made up for any flaws. Dee is portrayed as very cunning and perceptive individual. At the end of the day, it is a kungfu movie. A decent one to sit through for entertainment and plot intrigue.

The first film, the Phantom Flame was a true intellectual adventure. We start to think we are watching a fantasy, with talking deer and such, then Dee figures out the tricks and it's all science or at least science fiction. There was a strong attempt to keep the story grounded in reality. I know the fights still used all the wire stuff, but it did not seem has hokey as in this movie. This film is just pure fantasy from the start, with phony fighting and monsters. What's weird is they had a good story with a plausible scientific plot, then they threw all this phony stuff on top of it. I found myself laughing at it several times and not in a good way. Why bother with the logical story, if you are going to have magic all around it?

When you have a great story, a good character, a budget to do practically whatever you want and a talent for spawning something visually appealing, you come to a movie like this. Another wonder of Tsui Hark, with a story as elaborate as it is amazing. It is a film where the improbable and the impossible becomes everyday, where you must give yourself to the experience of immersing yourself in a fantasy world where wonder is the food of our eyes and ears. Detective Dee must again solve a problem that has dramatic elements and where betrayal is dormant in every frame. Great entertainment that ensures a dazzling experience.

OK, perhaps a bit cultural centric but if you imaginatively wanted to know what Sherlock was doing in a previous life long ago, well, quite a long time ago then Dee is your man. Haven't decided yet whether he needs a Watson since he's so Renaissance capable. Great sets, graphics - hopefully they did their research and most (excluding the fantastical parts, of course) of the visuals are authentic recreations. Martial arts scenes were typical wire with a bit more spins and tumbles and even more not so believable jumps. Acting is OK but not important as this film is about thought provoking storyline and dialogue. Speaking of dialogue it would be helpful if the subtitles stayed on a bit longer as we have to process both language and the visual nearly at once.

The plot and character development are catastrophic, and simply lack any sense of believability. The visual effects are cheap and lousy. Some actors are just amateurs and give really bad performances. Yes, the production design and music score are OK, but they're just negligible compared to the defects.

Young Detective Dee is the adventures of a youthful Sherlock in Medieval China with state of the art CGI and a sea monster. The film starts with warships sent by Empress Wu destroyed by an unseen monster. Young Dee arrives in the capital city intending to become a detective with the Da Lisi police force. He already has a rival in Yuchi. However there is another monster attacking the city linked with a courtesan. Dee links up with a medic to find answers and gets the attention of the Empress. The film is fragmented with many plot lines, its a while before we see Yee's ability in detective work. What we do get is a sprawling adventure with gargantuan set pieces mixed with impressive CGI and some sly humour. At times the action overpowers the film which could had done been with being more concise. In some sense Young Dee is overshadowed in his own movie. It is still an impressive introduction of recent Chinese action- adventure cinema.