This is obligatory: Andy Lau is the MAN!!! Even when he’s in sucky stuff, you forgive him (at least I did for Resurrection of the Dragon), because for every bad movie he does, there is a decent one coming around the bend. He is the hardest working man in Hong Kong!
Tsui Hark: let’s be real. The man gave us Once Upon A Time in China. But he also gave us Seven Swords (the movie). He can be a little uneven, inconsistent. So in the months before the release of Detective Dee, I was nervous. Can Tsui Hark be the Tsui Hark that we love? It was all hush-hush, with really bad quality video being leaked out. But I decided that I was going to have faith in him…..
AND HE DID!! This is the Tsui Hark we know and love! He is absolutely in his element: using cracktastic special effects with an over the top Saturday matinée story that makes sense! You go!
I really liked this movie. Is it Citizen Kane? No, and it’s absolutely not meant to be. This is why people (me) fell in love with movies in the first place. The story is not terribly obvious, the special effects make sense, and he does not waste Andy Lau, Carina Lau and Tony Leung Ka Fai in this. Yayz!
High Yellow - Asian Popular Culture 
‘Cracktastic’ – great adjective.
This film was a lot of fun, wasn’t it? I’ve read a few fan reviews online now, and we all seemed to have breathed a big sigh of relief that ‘Detective Dee’ is the goods – great cast, lavish looking, a wonderfully comvoluted plot, bloody good fun overall.
Crackstastic is probably my most favorite adjective, followed by crackalicious! Thank goodness Tsui Hark didn’t let us down. Isn’t he working on a remake of Dragon Inn? What can he possibly do to it?
Yes – I heard that too and I’m confused. Didn’t he already remake Dragon Inn? So he’s doing a remake of a remake? I have never seen the original King Hu Dragon Inn, but I did see Tsui Hark’s New Dragon Gate Inn (with Maggie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, and Donnie Yen) which I was under the impression was inspired by the King Hu film (but I may be wrong with this, as King Hu probably didn’t make a film with a nymphomaniac cannibal as one of his main characters). I am confused but not to worry – I will definitely go and see Tsui’s new Dragon Inn when it comes out.
YES!! I thought it was just me!! His Dragon Gate Inn is a remake of King Hu’s Dragon Inn (which I have, but have not gotten around to watching, so I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of a smack-talking, nymphomaniac cannibal). And like you, I will check out whatever Tsui Hark has to offer with his new remake.
Hi CeeFu, I am going to link this to the Heroic Sisterhood page on Facebook. Hopefully some people will find it interesting.