Dir: Hark Tsui
2010
*****
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a larger than life, martial arts, Arthur Conan Doyle style epic thriller. It is also every bit as good as that sounds. I was blown away by Hark Tsui's film, the colour, the action, the story...it's nothing short of spectacular. The choreography is second to none but none of the action is at the expense of story. It looks glorious and remains visually stunning from the very begining. Tsui's steampunkesque vision of ancient China is very effective, although on paper sounds horrible and the sort of thing Hollywood would make a real mess of. Hark Tsui's films have a cult following but could and should easily be mainstream, he is one of the most exciting directors working today and I urge you all to seek out his work.
No comments:
Post a Comment