Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings
Directed by: Hark Tsui
Written by: Chia-lu Chang
Starring: Mark Chao, Feng Shaofeng, Lin Gengxin, Ethan Juan, Ma Sichun, Carina Lau
Action - 132 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 24 July 2018
Written by: Chia-lu Chang
Starring: Mark Chao, Feng Shaofeng, Lin Gengxin, Ethan Juan, Ma Sichun, Carina Lau
Action - 132 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 24 July 2018
Director Hark Tsui’s third Detective Dee film, The Four Heavenly Kings, fits his pattern of solving a central mystery by the unusually wise and strategic thinking Dee Renjie. After rebooting the franchise with a younger actor with the aptly titled, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon, in 2013, The Four Heavenly Kings is a sequel to Sea Dragon’s events. However, these two films take place on a timeline prior to the first film, Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame - confused yet?
The Emperor gifted Dee (Mark Chao) with the all-powerful Dragon-Taming Mace for his efforts in the previous film. The mace has the power to vanquish armies and overthrow dynasties, even the Emperor’s own. This makes Empress Wu (Carina Lau) nervous. She has ambitions for the throne, to become the first woman to occupy that particular seat of power. Should Detective Dee choose to, he could either prevent her ascendence or remove her later, a chance Empress Wu is unwilling to accept. However, those specific events are clarified in the Phantom Flame. The Four Heavenly Kings has its own demons to uncover.
The Emperor gifted Dee (Mark Chao) with the all-powerful Dragon-Taming Mace for his efforts in the previous film. The mace has the power to vanquish armies and overthrow dynasties, even the Emperor’s own. This makes Empress Wu (Carina Lau) nervous. She has ambitions for the throne, to become the first woman to occupy that particular seat of power. Should Detective Dee choose to, he could either prevent her ascendence or remove her later, a chance Empress Wu is unwilling to accept. However, those specific events are clarified in the Phantom Flame. The Four Heavenly Kings has its own demons to uncover.
Wu orders Captain of the Golden Guards, Yuchi Zhenjin (Shaofeng Feng), to steal the Mace from Dee and she hires a group of four mysterious assassins/conjurers to help him. These sorcerer mercenaries are what lace The Four Heavenly Kings with its peculiar philosophy. The film’s atmosphere and tone feel more like a supernatural fantasy than a standard wuxia genre adherent. Dee knows evil is coming and consults with a local wise man - enlightenment must wait, there are earthly demons to confront. These Buddhist themes stand against the origins of the invading magicians.
Dee cannot quite define the outsiders and their sneaky tricks to hypnotize victims into seeing dragons and other nasty creatures which are not actually there. He only knows they come from India and were betrayed by the Emperor who used their skills to gain power in the first place. It’s worth noting for the past few years in the real world, China and India have been posturing military forces against each other along disputed territory. Accusations of skullduggery are flung from both sides and now there is a Chinese film unsure about about where the villains originate from exactly, but they are for sure from somewhere in India.
Coincidence? Perhaps. At least it distracts from the overwhelming gender stereotypes staffing the film’s female characters. The Empress is a conventional “Battle Axe”. She is domineering and severe toward the meek men surrounding her, including the Emperor. She has no particular reason to be, she merely is. One of the chief sorcerers is a “Crone”. She is malicious as she laughs hysterically in a witch’s cackle. Her laugh occurs at the end of most of her declarative sentences - just stating the facts causes her to laugh. There is a Romeo & Juliet pairing between Dee’s right-hand man/doctor and one of the mysterious outsiders who happens to be a gorgeous assassin (Shui Yue). I wonder if the assassin with the heart of gold can see what is really going here and hopefully bring these star-crossed lovers together.
I break out these archetypes because a meandering, careless script stunts The Four Heavenly Kings; the film would be relegated to the bargain bin regardless of the director’s skill behind it. There is room in wuxia for Detective Dee stories and even room in western pop culture to embrace his character. Dee is intriguing - he operates on a higher plane than your average gumshoe. If a decent script ever took his circumstances seriously, it would propel him and the series to a hint of cinematic respect. Instead, Detective Dee must suffer through further B-movie CGI, nebulous villains from this year’s political enemy, and a cabinet full of stock character stereotypes.
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