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.