What makes it different from others?

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

"Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame" is an entertaining movie that couldn't be mistaken for anything else but what it is: a Hark Tsui's movie.Detective Dee, an all-charm Andy Lau, has been in prison for 8 years because he opposed the wife of the deceased Emperor and her growing power. But after some mysterious killings happen just before she is to become Regent Empress, he is called back to help.And little more. The plot is just empty air. You have some betrayals, some mysterious deaths, some investigation done by detective Dee, but really, the plot is little less than an excuse. There is almost zero detective work and little tension.What it lacks in plot or character development (it doesn't help that everyone is overacting, something typical on the other hand in this type of movies), it more than makes up for in flashy set ups, nice fights and colorful environments (even if the CGI work can be... well, lacking). Tsui Hark knows how to make everything look amazing and the atmosphere is just great, and all the set ups are really cool (as the underground city). It all looks so good that it ends up leaving the viewer with a feeling of a wasted opportunity. Tsui Hark doesn't care much for pace or plot, more about set ups, pieces and fights. The movie could have been much better if it was more balanced. As it is, it is an enjoyable time in front of the screen, but don't go expecting much more.

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.

Di Renjie zhi tongtian diguo or Detective Dee and the mystery of the phantom flame is a Chinese fantasy movie that takes place during the Zhou Dynasty when the first and only Chinese empress Wu Zetian started her reign. The cold, cruel and somewhat megalomaniac woman that wants to rule on her own accord and who killed several potential enemies in the past is now menaced days before her crowning. After the mysterious death of two people during the construction of a giant Buddha statue in front of the emperor's residence, she asks the Chaplain, a sort of state preceptor who speaks through a magical deer, for help. He gives her the advice to recruit the banned Detective Dee who had openly accused the empress for having possibly killed her late husband and who was one of the leading persons in a growing revolution eight years ago. Even before Detective Dee can be contacted, a group of assassins tries to kill him and another prisoner but they ultimately fail. Intrigued by the strange murders and the will to make peace with his past, Detective Dee soon discovers that black magic seems to be the cause of the deaths. Accompanied by the empress' charming but mysterious attendant and an albinistic officer in the penal system, Detective Dee has to put the pieces of the puzzle together before the crowning of the empress takes place and soon discovers a well organized conspiracy with the goal to kill the empress.This movie has a historic background that is though not developed in a profound way. The film rather focuses on fantastic elements around black magic, a few mild suspension moments and a couple of artistic action choreographies done by some of the best experts of several outstanding Hongkong action movies of the late eighties and early nineties. This film though wastes a little bit of potential on here as it turns out to be too diversified to truly convince in any of the genres it touches and as it lacks of a few more developed cultural and historical bits and pieces that would make the final result more authentic.Apart of the action choreographies, a true highlight are definitely the buildings, costumes and masquerades in the movie that were created in a very precise and professional way as it often happens to be in contemporary Chinese movies. On the other side, the special effects are less impressive and often to artificially flavoured so that they destroy the movie's certain kind of magic a few times. That's where Hollywood is still slightly ahead of modern Asian cinema.While the story of this movie definitely has a few good points and a couple of small twists as well, there are still some negative factors. One never really gets to know why the two persons in the beginning of the movie really had to die instead of killing the empress in an unexpected way during her crowning. The movie also has a few anachronisms such as way too modern ships in the harbour and the diplomat in the beginning of the film whose identity and role remains strangely unresolved. These flaws are pardonable if you take this movie as a fictional film only.In the end, you get an entertaining fantasy movie with a solidly suspenseful story, well done choreographies and stunning costumes. The movie though has no truly innovating elements, surprising moments or touching scenes. It has without a doubt a certain kind of magic after all but it is sometimes too professionally done to touch the people. This movie is rather ordinary in comparison to what the gifted director Tsui Hark has done in the past but it's still one of the more entertaining Asian movies from 2010. After all, I guess I would only recommend this film to long time fans of Asian cinema as well as of stunning costumes and artistic choreographies. I would go for a loan instead of an immediate purchase as the film is surely entertaining but nothing outstanding enough to be a worthy addition to a film collection of an Asian cinema maniac.

Detective Dee is an enjoyable romp without much substance, kind of like that cheerleader you dated back in high school with the great looks and bubbly personality but nothing whatsoever important to say. Director Hark Tsui's film does a commendable job creating a period piece that puts the viewer in the middle of the Tang dynasty when China's empire rivaled that of Ancient Rome. The visuals are stunning and the towering Empress Wu statue adds a mystical aura to the film despite the small special effects budget.The mystery plot however is not fully developed with too many leaps in logic and petty motives to please most fans of the genre and the action sequences fail to add any new twists, just more unbelievable "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" wire tricks that seem out of place in the historical setting.I'm sure this movie would have been more enjoyable in Mandarin - the English voice-over dialog was stilted and shallow and strangely enough the subtitles varied considerably from the voice-over so "fire beetles" becomes "fire turtles" in the voice-over. Perhaps the word for "beetle" is "turtle" in Chinese but I was personally disappointed to see that the vicious flaming snapping turtles I had visualized turned out to be harmless-looking creepy crawlers!