Member AlbertV Posted June 19, 2013 Member Share Posted June 19, 2013 Tsui Hark is working on a prequel to Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. Twitch revealed a teaser and this plot: "The young Dee Renjie arrives in the Imperial Capital, intent to become an officer of the law. Empress Wu, who is at the start of her reign, has sent the fiery-haired Detective Yuchi to investigate a sea monster that stalks the city at night. By chance, both Dee and Yuchi fight off the creature when it attacks a ceremonial procession carrying the beautiful courtesan Yin to be sacrificed at a temple to appease the Gods. Suspicious of the stranger, Yuchi has Dee imprisoned. Dee escapes with the help of visiting doctor Shatuo and together they discover that the upper reaches of society, including the Emperor himself, are addicted to a poisonous tea produced by Yuan's famous teahouse. Yuan, who was romantically attached to Yin, has been missing for months. Dee shadows the courtesan, who is under Yuchun's protection, until the sea monster reappears. Just as the two men are about to kill it, Yin reveals that the monster is her lover, Yuan. Yuan has been poisoned by a foreign Prince whose kingdom was overthrown by the Emperor. As the Prince's army readies itself on a nearby island to attack the capital, a real sea dragon rises from the deep." Taking over in the role of Dee Renjie is Mark Chao. The film is scheduled for release on September 28 in China and Hong Kong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted June 19, 2013 Member Share Posted June 19, 2013 Great news. The first Detective Dee film was great and this plot sounds quite interesting. Count me in. :bigsmile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member massa_yoda Posted June 19, 2013 Member Share Posted June 19, 2013 Great news. The first Detective Dee film was great and this plot sounds quite interesting. Count me in. :bigsmile: Agree. I liked the first film, but I was hoping for an actual sequel, not prequel. Still, this at least sounds interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member CatNap Posted June 22, 2013 Member Share Posted June 22, 2013 Agree. I liked the first film, but I was hoping for an actual sequel, not prequel. Still, this at least sounds interesting. I'm disappointed it's not a sequel too...I was hoping to see Carina Lau back in the role. She was awesome as the Empress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted September 5, 2013 Member Share Posted September 5, 2013 Here's the trailer... Y2NTdvqCnVQ I haven't even seen the first one yet but this doesn't really grab my interests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gaijin84 Posted September 5, 2013 Member Share Posted September 5, 2013 First one was ok and the books are supposed to be pretty fun, but this looks like another CGI overload. And stop with the 3D... it's dead already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted September 5, 2013 Member Share Posted September 5, 2013 Not in China it ain't.... it's actually a demand..... sad as that may be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member odioustrident Posted September 6, 2013 Member Share Posted September 6, 2013 This "Sea Dragon" looks like it will probably be some Dynasty era submarine. Pretty badass. The last film was a richer kind of historical fantasy than other recent period entries.... Better ideas and a more developed setting. The action delivery was forgivable by my standards. This could be lots of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DiP Posted September 6, 2013 Member Share Posted September 6, 2013 The first movie was average imo. A couple of good fight scenes but that'd be about it for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member CatNap Posted September 8, 2013 Member Share Posted September 8, 2013 I liked Carina Lau in the first film - I hope she gets more screen time in the second....I really don't get the buzz about 3D, never cared for that myself.... Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member ToryK Posted September 8, 2013 Member Share Posted September 8, 2013 SPOILERS for the first one. I just wish they hadn't killed off Deng Chao's character, Donglai. I would have dug a spin-off movie, as he was definitely my favorite character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member odioustrident Posted October 4, 2013 Member Share Posted October 4, 2013 Just saw this. Phantom Flame is probably better written with a better realized plot... but that's about it. The production values and action in this film are a step up.. with some full length, inventive set pieces that made me think I was watching our first real successor to the good New Wave swordplays. The shots had more clarity than most of what I saw in Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Phantom Flame and even Reign of Assassins. I hate to say it - but this is HK getting CGI pretty close to correct. The villains presented more threat this time and we even get a first class monster for the finale. Loved this movie and look forward to what Yuen Bun is involved with next. If you ever enjoyed pure ideas in an action sequence with little display of physical talent.. give this a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kami Posted October 4, 2013 Member Share Posted October 4, 2013 Sounds great, looking really forward to it. Tsui Hark is indeed the maestro of fantasy/wuxia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DiP Posted October 4, 2013 Member Share Posted October 4, 2013 Thanks for the mini-review, odioustrident. Sounds like a comeback vehicle for Hark. But if anything, he's getting repetitive with his choice of movies. He's known as a versatile filmmaker but his stay in period action/wu xia movies lately has made his output quite boring to watch imo. Why not switch up and start making more moderns? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Gwai LO Posted January 19, 2014 Member Share Posted January 19, 2014 Wow. I have such different taste than so many of you here. I loved the wrath of vajra and the protector 2 while most of you disliked those.. But I hated almost everything about this movie. The green lake monster had a very rubbery costume. The fights were crap and full of cgi and way to much flying about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member xianzai Posted January 19, 2014 Member Share Posted January 19, 2014 I quite liked it. Much better than the first, IMO. Really seemed to nail 3D as a medium, and had quite inventive set pieces. Personally I prefer smaller-scale wuxias like Reign of Assassins, Wu Xia, or early/mid Chor Yuen films. But a popcorn spectacle movie like this is a nice change from that every once in a while. My only real complaint is that the actor playing Dee wasn't very engaging, esp. when compared to the one playing Chief Minister Yuchi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BaronK Posted January 21, 2014 Member Share Posted January 21, 2014 I enjoyed the movie but not the action. Very small bits and pieces were ok but much in the action sequences tended to turn me off. Wire work was extremely repetitive with the same kind of body twirling over and over. The cgi in the action or to make it 3d and the real people that become cgi people in fights, ala Blade 2/Matrix Reloaded, looked so corny and distracting. Things would be rolling along ok, then he'd do some weird cgi thing that would destroy visual flow or sense. I enjoyed much of the first one but none of the action in that one either. Action wise it felt exactly like the Dragon Gate movie. TS trying too hard to use cgi and make a 3d movie. I enjoyed the story and characters and the action does not kill the movie for me. Fun movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted June 16, 2014 Moderator Share Posted June 16, 2014 I posted my review of the movie here - http://www.cityonfire.com/young-detective-dee-rise-of-the-sea-dragon-2013-review/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG Posted July 19, 2014 Member Share Posted July 19, 2014 I too really enjoyed this film. Got my copy to view surprisingly from my local library. Gd Y-Y Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG Posted July 19, 2014 Member Share Posted July 19, 2014 Does anyone know what may come from Tsui Hark next? He is on a roll I would say. Gd Y-Y Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member massa_yoda Posted July 20, 2014 Member Share Posted July 20, 2014 Does anyone know what may come from Tsui Hark next? He is on a roll I would say. Gd Y-Y Younger Detective Dee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted July 20, 2014 Moderator Share Posted July 20, 2014 Younger Detective Dee Nice! Hark's next movie will be called 'The Taking of Tiger Mountain', and is based on a novel from the 1950s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted August 12, 2014 Member Share Posted August 12, 2014 It's currently out in France, but I won't go see it until later on essentially to have the original dub instead of the French one. And my local theater will be having it as part of an Asian cinema event that is set to start in a couple of weeks - so far I know they'll screen this and The Raid 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted August 12, 2014 Author Member Share Posted August 12, 2014 My mom and I decided to have a Detective Dee double feature on Netflix on Sunday. Saw first Phantom Flame then this one. I have to admit, I liked both films. I will be reviewing this film later this week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Secret Executioner Posted September 11, 2014 Member Share Posted September 11, 2014 Finally saw this one a couple of days ago (Mandarin dub with French subs). And it's GREAT. I still put The Raid 2 over this one as far as "best Asian movie of the year" goes, but it's one GREAT film - on par with the first one, though it's hard to tell which I liked the most. The action really got OTT at times and I felt the "sea dragon" was kinda meh (the love-child of Godzilla and a manta ray ?! Was that the best you could come up with ?!), but I liked the story (impressive how all goes together when the beginning seems to have so many different plotlines), the sets (the opening scene with the ships was damn impressive), the characters (to be fair, I found Angelababy was essentially eye-candy, but I certainly won't complain about it) and it was nice of Tsui Hark to have the monster from Creature From The Black Lagoon showing up for a backstory and that guy even got a happy ending - seriously, that mutated dude kept making me think of this monster, I couldn't help it. The comedy (cause there is) is also enjoyable - that whacky doctor simply killed me, he's so freaking hilarious (especially in the end credits scenes - hope you didn't miss those) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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