Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 8, 2018

If Detective Dee might be thought of as something akin to an (ancient) Asian Sherlock Holmes, Tsui Hark’s film adaptations featuring the venerable character would probably be more likely to be compared (cinematically speaking, anyway) to this Sherlock rather than that Sherlock. (Yes, there are several others like Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada Television Series, and Sherlock Holmes, not to mention Sherlock and Elementary, but for comparison’s sake, the Tsui films probably still most resemble the Guy Ritchie versions.) Detective Dee is perhaps unexpectedly a real life historical figure, at least more or less, a magistrate in the Tang court whose exploits were later fictionalized, gaining international fame through a series of books kind of oddly written by a Dutchman, Robert van Gulik. It doesn’t appear that any of the Tsui films are actually derived from van Gulik’s offerings, but all three (so far) Detective Dee films that Tsui has directed are often “novelistic”, at least in terms of sprawling plot dynamics and at times overstuffed cast rosters. Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings certainly qualifies in both of those realms, though certain aspects of the film seem to be revisiting prior “installments” ( Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon). This film offers Mark Chao as Di Renjie, otherwise known as Detective Dee, but perhaps just a little oddly, Dee is kind of shunted off to the sidelines throughout this enterprise, as various court intrigues tend to focus more on scheming Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau) perennially wide eyed Yuchi Zhenjin (Feng Shaofeng), whose perceived loyalties provide some of the story's tension, and Shatuo Zhong ((Lin Gengxin), who functions as this film’s semi-bumbling Watson stand in (more or less, anyway).

This film pretty much just picks up in the wake (no pun intended) of Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon, with the Emperor bestowing a magical weapon called the Dragon Taming Mace on Dee in recognition for Dee having prevailed in the epic battle of the previous film. That definitely sets the Empress off on a tear, since the Mace (for reasons which are left largely unexplained) somehow grants Dee power even over his royal “superiors”. The Empress recruits a conflicted Yuchi as well as a gaggle of supposedly supernaturally powered folks called the Mystic Clan. Among these is the strangely made up Moon Water (Ma Sichun), who ends up having an “oil and water” relationship with Shatuo Zhong.

Meanwhile a suspicious poisoning catches Dee’s attention, though as has often been the case with this character in his previous cinematic outings, sidebars can often be red herrings set there only to prove how many steps ahead Dee tends to be when confronted by evil doers. The film has a bunch of allusions to or even overt depictions of things like hypnotism, and there are some kind of cool little vignettes given over to “trances”, either fostered by cults, or aimed at certain individuals. Therefore, “visions” can accrue at times which are later revealed to be just that — visions, with the film almost delighting in willful misdirection where the audience is led to believe one things is happening, only to have certain revelations appear that kind of cheekily suggest, “just kidding”.

The upshot is that while the Empress is seen fairly overtly as a chief villain(ess), she is not the only one, and much as with other Detective Dee films, there is a whole group of folks with bad intent, in this case one with a supposed historical link to the Tang Dynasty itself. As with the previous Detective Dee films, though, the probably overly convoluted plot mechanics really end up not mattering all that much, since Tsui is such a purveyor of visual (and in this film, audio) overkill that sensory input is often on overload, to the point that any logical assessment of story information probably understandably can take a back seat in the viewing experience.

That said, even with the nonstop array of impressive CGI and sound design hyperbole, there are some odd lapses in either logic or just good, old fashioned character development and/or exposition. It’s kind of clunky in a way to have Moon Water serve as both a putative love interest and one of a group who are seen, passingly at least, as (some of) the bad guys. And even the Empress’ progression is a bit wobbly at times, though that said, there is an absolutely wonderful reveal part way through the film that nicely offers yet another “it was just a dream” moment. But maybe the weirdest thing in this third Detective Dee film is how tangential Dee himself seems to the proceedings. The “emotional” aspect is really given over more to Moon Water and Shatuo Zhong than to the relationship between Dee and Yuchi, and really even Yuchi’s dilemma as to where his loyalties lie can be seen as more of a focal element than anything that happens involving Dee. The film is arguably a little overlong and overstuffed at over two hours, but like its predecessors it’s often a phantasmagoria visually and sonically, and those who like magically infused historical epics will probably find a lot to like here.

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists this as having screened theatrically in both 2.35:1 and 1:90 (in its IMAX 3D version). As with the other Detective Dee films Well Go USA has released, fans may be frustrated by the fact that only a "flat" 2D rendering of the film is included, something that, much as I mentioned in my closing comments of our Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon Blu-ray review, may be especially disappointing since it's so obvious that many of the big special effects sequences in the film were specifically designed with 3D in mind. That said, this Red Epic Dragon shot film looks spectacular on (2D) Blu-ray, with beautifully sharp detail throughout and an incredibly vivid and well saturated palette. Even typically soft elements like CGI often have superb detail levels here, as in the kind of Yeti meets King Kong character, where the rendering of the fur is virtually palpable. Some of what look like practical makeup effects also have superb levels of fine detail, sometimes even in midrange shots. I noticed just a hint of banding in some of the production mastheads before the film actually started, but nothing in the presentation itself.

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings features a sometimes insanely gonzo DTS:X mix in the original Mandarin. This is one of the more enjoyable DTS:X mixes I've personally gotten to review, some of it courtesy of some of the weaponry (literally) on hand, as with some of the spinning discs one of the Mystic Clan utilizes. When he sends them flying, the overhead panning sounds are fantastic, and a number of fight scenes offer incredible placement of discrete effects, so that the listener is virtually enveloped in sound. Other big effects moments, like the "resurrection" of a Golden Dragon in the imperial court also offer nice engagement of all the surround channels, as well as some thundering LFE. Dialogue is presented clearly and cleanly, fidelity is excellent and dynamic range extremely wide on this very enjoyable track.

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers contains two "branded" pieces for the film, which as per Well Go USA standard operating procedure, are authored to follow one another automatically:

  Dark Sorcery (1080p; 1:44)

  
  

  Heavenly Kings Arise (1080p; 2:16)

Also, as per Well Go USA tradition, the disc is authored so that previews for other Well Go USA releases automatically follow the second trailer for this film. These same previews also play automatically at disc boot up.

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is yet another fantasy laden Asian enterprise I'm putting in my "shiny object" pile, by which I mean if you don't mind a story that has a few too many diversions and probably not enough real development, there's a lot to look at and listen to in this film. It's a continuing shame that we can't get 3D presentations of the Detective Dee films on domestic Blu-ray, but that's probably the only major drawback to this release. Recommended.