Di Renjie: Shen du long wang (2013)

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Siskoid
Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon is the first prequel to Tsui Hark's first Detective Dee film (based on the books based on the folk tales based on a real Tang Dynasty constable), trading mega-star Andy Lau for the younger and far less memorable Mark Chao, but he's not bad in the role, by any means. What really hampers this otherwise fun romp (I mean, it's wuxia Sherlock Holmes with a big dollop of kaiju, it's in fact, QUITE fun) is the director, not for the first time, being too ambitious given his effects budget. The CG is prevalent and often unsuccessful. It's not just 3D matte paintings and giant monsters, he uses it to show Dee's observational powers, to make the action more super-heroic, and sometimes just to create fun transitions between scenes. Director Tsui doesn't know when to quit while he's ahead, so he prolongs a joke well into the credits sequence and stretches his cgi budget well beyond what it can effectively do. But once you accept the style and go with it, Rise of the Sea Dragon has lots of stuff you haven't seen before. It's splashy, it's funny, it's exciting, it's weird. Its energy might just make you forgive its flaws. 6 years 4 months ago
KPND
The English title is "Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon". I don't know how to suggest adding this to the database, so there ya go. 10 years 6 months ago