Following up his fantastical and adventurous mystery film Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Tsui Hark returns to the same character with a prequel, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon, introducing us to a young Dee Renjie (Mark Chao) who is ready to take on his first case as he joins the Imperial police force.
Dee Renjie is a talented problem solver who arrives to the Imperial Capital after a sea dragon attacks the Empress’ war ships and destroys them all. When Dee discovers that a few criminals want to kidnap the courtesan of the Dragon Temple, who is readying to sacrifice herself to put the dragon at bay, he goes to stop them but is soon attacked by a human sized sea monster that seems to know Lady Ruiji (Angelababy). While Dee is saving Lady Ruiji, Justice Department Chief Minister Yuchi (Feng Shaofeng) fights off the monster and, against Yuchi’s desires, eventually teams up with Dee to find out who this monster is, why people want him or Lady Ruiji, and how they can stop the giant sea dragon from attacking and bringing down the Tang dynasty.
I thought the first Detective Dee was a fun fantasy romp that provided fantasy lovers everything they could want in an action mystery flick. The natural reaction to creating a smash hit is attempting to franchise it, though instead of sticking with Lau and moving forward with a new mystery, Hark went back in time for a prequel, one that I don’t think was really necessary yet nor is it nearly as entertaining as the first. In this film, Mark Chao takes over Dee Duties for Andy Lau and does a good enough job, but while the mystery is slightly intriguing, Hark failed to keep me completely engaged and entertained and I think that’s the most important part of any adventurous detective film.
Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon takes Dee’s action chorographical cues from both Peter Chan’s Wu Xia and Hollywood’s Sherlock Holmes. Furthermore, it’s impossible not to see a resemblance between Dee’s methods of deduction and that of Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, it’s a strong influence but one that can be both appreciated and enjoyed as there is eventually some comedic value that results from it. Thankfully, this also allows director Hark to keep the movie moving at a brisk pace to keep us somewhat engaged, though it’s about 15 minutes too long.
I had a few issue with this film, one has to do with the inconsistent quality of the effects work. There is a ton of CGI in the film and the opening scene, which is a shot of ships at sea, gets you ready for how bad some of the effects work is going to be. It’s extremely easy to tell what’s a real set and what isn’t in the first
two minutes of the film. That being said, there are other moments where the CGI is great, especially in the final climax when the sea “dragon” is attacking the Imperial ships, it seems like they poured all of their money into making sure the monster looked good, sacrificing everything else, which I can tolerate.
The other issue I had with the film, and this is merely a matter of my apparently skewed perspective, is the look of the sea dragon. I think it’s safe to say everyone has an idea of what a dragon is supposed to look like but the one in this movie looked like a gigantic manta ray with rocklike skin and the mouth of the Sarlacc (sand monster) from Star Wars. I’d call this a sea monster, not a sea dragon, especially since it looks nothing like the dragons of Chinese folklore, which look so cool. I’m really surprised this ended up being the title because it’s really misleading and actually one of the reasons I wanted to see the movie, which is why I’m bothered by it.
For fans of fast forwarded wire work and the idea that certain characters can defy the laws of gravity while others can’t, this movie is certainly for you. I love fantasy films but I can’t handle unfair fights and superhuman abilities when it is rooted in nothing and the characters come off as completely normal. Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon is nothing more than an attempt to expand Dee’s presence, which I imagine was Hark’s goal, and cash in on the success of the original, which is what the studio wants, while delivering, at best, a mediocre film for the masses to be merely content with. We can only hope that if they make another Dee film, it will somehow involve Andy Lau re-teaming with Hark.
Rating: A mildly entertaining action mystery in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, but with the titular sea dragon replaced by a monstrous manta ray (5/10)
While the film looks rather amazing in Blu-ray, the high quality also accentuates the poor blending of real props and actors with those that are computer generated. This is one of those instances where you either suck it up and pay for the great visuals and deal with the poor effects or you hope that the DVD quality prevents you from seeing the poor effects blending.
Outside of the quality of the Blu-ray, there is nothing else to review as there are no bonus features included on the disc.
Disc rating: 1/10
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