Detective Dee and the Mystery of His Infinite Love

Just came back from seeing the tiny little treasure, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame directed by Hark Tsui and written by Jialu Zhang and Kuo-fu Chen. I love Chinese films. I think I will probably always love them because the first film I ever fell in love with was Camille Claudel; the second was Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou. I grew up in a tiny little suburban town where I didn't know much about cinema and knew even less about foreign cinema. A pretty highly homogenized area, it wasn't until I came to Chicago that I really discovered that there was more to the world than white and black, and once I knew that I've pretty much never looked back.

Detective Dee tells a deliciously lurid and fantastical epic of the mystery of the burning flame that burns several unsuspecting officials to nothing more than few ashes in the first few sequences. We quickly learn that the reigning emperor-to-be at that time is the Empress Wu (Carina Lau) who is about to receive her coronation, despite the fact that she is not well liked by most. Her life's quote: to achieve greatness, everything is expendable. We quickly meet her cohorts of support who gather around her with mixed affection--for her and each other: Pei Donglai (Chao Deng), terrificly ghastly in his ghostly blonde complexion and the lovely but viperous, Jinger (Bing Bing Li), and then the poor one-handed loaf Shatuo (Tony Leung Ka Fai), Detective Dee's friend, who turns out to have more up his sleeve than just a stump. With two officials literally burning to nothing but dust in seconds, the Empress concedes her somewhat disguised dignity and brings in Detective Dee (Andy Lau), the detective who vocally promoted against her taking the throne (because he believed her ascension was not quite deserving) and was promptly jailed and sentenced to a life long obligation of burning memorials.

I've seen Andy Lau in several Chinese films, and he's a wonderful actor who's worked forever (Chinese actors never seem to age!) and on basically everything (from Kar Wai's As Tears Go By to Yimou's House of the Flying Daggers to Alan Mak's and Wai-Keung Lau's Infernal Affairs). But it was nice to see him in such a relaxed posture in this film. It's lovely to see because as one artist to another, you want to feel that actors know love most of all and especially in a film about love.

I know that many action fans will find fault with this simple description, especially when so many martial arts films have some sappy storyline that's a love story, but this story is not about romance, it's about true love, sadly the love that many of us will never experience and rarely recognize.

When Detective Dee comes out and begins his investigation, he never pretends to be anything than who he is, even when he shows up to meet the Empress for the first time in his shreds of rags that bear a meek resemblance to clothing. He never pretends to like her but he agrees to take on this job with really nothing but the faint wisp of freedom. But it seems clear that that is not his reason for taking on this obligation, there is more a feeling of: this is what has been presented and so he will take that path.

The bickering between Empress's cohorts erupts as Detective Dee patiently investigates every avenue and discovers along the way, just how deep the Empress' indiscretions have gone. But soon Detective Dee begins to have impact on his colleagues. The bickering seems to fall away as Jinger's grim facade fades and even Pei becomes less of a creepy guy and more of someone who cares about his comrades. What is so eloquent about all of this is that this movie illustrates so much of love's power in such a subtle way. It's not that Dee ever suggests or even quietly insinuates that anyone change their behavior, he simply goes about in his own way of loving and dealing with the people around him, and his love seems to enshroud those that are around him. They seem to grow and change simply because they are with him and know him; they are loved by him despite their own failings and impurities.

It's this faultless character that helps him to save Jinger's life, to have Pei at his greatest moments of torture sacrifice his last words for others, and in Dee's last moments with the empress--the woman whom he has referred to as pure evil--causes her to disclose her heart to him and rescind the quote that greatness is really all there is. (Kudos also to the writers and filmmakers for deciding to give some of these traditionally one-dimensional characters, a space in the real world.)

Don't get me wrong, there's some pretty nice martial art work here, some brilliant to half-way decent special effects--done exceedingly well for video/HD (of which I am never a fan). There's also great costuming, wonderfully tranportive locations, admired more for the idea than execution, and some great sleepy sequences with Jinger's red. The solved mystery really is not too shabby either. But what really comes through and lifts this picture is the theme of love, love of self, love of others, love in abundance and love without limitation. How I love that that's what true art is all about. I embrace the quote that love changes things. However, this film reminds me that love changes everything.

Tai Chi Master and Photo Journalist: Robin Diakhate

This morning a friend and I decided to go for a walk at one of Los Angeles' local parks. Kenneth Hahn is a beautiful park located just south of the Baldwin Hills area. I have been to Kenneth Hahn only once before and this was my second visit, and I was astonished by what a complete and enormous park this is. With several trails, beautiful ponds, lakes and streams, a number of vistas from which to view LA, and more than a few kid parks, it has a lot to offer (despite some ugly technical structures) and is a wonderful surprise to find off La Cienega if you're heading down to the airport. My friend has been here on a few occasions, and we met there because she and I are creatives who are both at major turning points in our artistic and creative lives. Although this was never said out loud, we met there not only to walk and to share, but to somehow work through our separate processes, to discover where our art was taking us, to exchange and debate the obstacles we were facing, and to find the creative and financial balance we're seeking in our lives.

Robin is a beautiful woman with dark ebony skin and a full robust voice that always reminds me of the deep and indistinguishable strength of black women. She's steady on her feet and her NY accent always brings me back to the east and whether I could live in NYC as I know my family wishes. Her hair is in long locs and dotted by tiny curls of grey that frame a full and round face that surrenders easily to smiles and laughs. I love her laugh because it is like mine; totally its own creature and yet uniquely Robin.

Robin is a photographer. But she is not like some others who I've known who also call themselves photographers. She is a student on her way to becoming a master; and by saying master, I mean that she is intent on learning every element related to her craft and how these elements affect and define each treasured image. A master here I think of as someone with a lifelong pursuit of learning because a true artist's thirst for their craft is so inexhaustible. Robin is always looking for that stolen moment, and she wants to photograph everything. From the bee that's creeping under a petal to the key lime cupcake we had from one of the lunch trunks. She finds something to love about each shot she takes, and she tries to capture something of that affection in each image. She wants what spills forth from the camera to show something of her in each take and to reveal the connection she's made with her subject. She wants her observer to be with her when she captures that shot, and I think that what makes her work come alive.

As we talked I asked her if she had a mission statement, and the one she shared was simple and powerful, though she feared it might sound a little too cheesy. She shared that what she was seeking was to reveal the oneness of life in her photography, to show all the connectedness that we have found between ourselves and the life around us. That one life is never separate and is always connected to us as we are connected to the earth. There are many things I take away from Agape, and one of the grandest thoughts has been that God is us. That the central spiritual being is not watching us, but is to be found within us and within all the blessings of the earth, and I found myself moved by her wish and desire to have her work do just that--move people.

While this nature and enlightenment conversation was happening, she saw a man happen to walk by. He was a graceful figure dressed all in white straight out of the old Chinese films I used to watch when I was a child. He was wearing the same slippered shoes and a simple cotton tunic top. He was a small but very striking man with a handsome face, and beautiful laugh wrinkles that framed large eyes that never seemed to stop twinkling. As he walked by and greeted us, she asked ever so politely if she could photograph him. He respectfully asked why and eventually refused, but I was so taken by her small and genuine gesture. And apparently so was he, because after he completed his tai chi exercises in another part of the park, he came back to us and so began a longer conversation that began with fear and a revelatory 8 hours later ended in love.

As Robin and I talked after this wonderful conversation with this teacher and observer of life and love, she asked me if I had gone on her blog and seen her work, and I realized sadly that I had not. I realized in this one moment, I had not been her friend and had not supported her or her work. It's funny because when I sat down to write the snapshot of this day, I had planned to write about this glorious man who shared so much with us. Robin and I had come there both holding a lot of fear about which paths and choices we should make, and that fear had all dissolved in the presence of this man; but it wasn't because of him I realized, it was because of her. Her openness had left such an impression on this man, that he came back to us and in turn shared his most personal remembrances, lessons and thoughts; he had very literally poured out his soul and let us bathe in it.

What so much of this century's modern work (and even social discourse) lacks, is authenticity; but not only authentic work, but authentic people--people who are sincere and open and allow themselves to be opened and to open up to others. In so many ways our culture has learned how to speak the words, but not to walk in the way that we describe. We have become so mired in a face of artificiality that we can't even see the reality of what's important in our own lives. I believe that is a force that we must continue to combat in our daily life with these characters of life that can't be forgotten: love, truth and presence. So I commend Robin for not only making me see my own contribution to this unspoken fallacy, but also for providing a very rare authenticity to her work. It makes her work really live and breathe and in so many of the photos, I see exactly her love and spirit in the work she has created. This is her site. http://lovebeyondwords.posterous.com/?tag=photography&page=3 Please approach with care because you just might fall in love with her too.