Preparing for her coronation day, Wu Zietan, the first empress of China, decides to build a huge status as a symbol for her, but when the workers died mysteriously by her opponents, she asks help from her best friend, who gives orders to tease the detective Dee from prison, in order to solve the case and find out the suspect.
If you're looking for a popcorn movie, producer-director Tsui has crafted an absurdist fantasy that might cure -- or spontaneously combust -- the summertime blues. But even escapist entertainment can have interesting angles.
Seattle Times
September 26, 2011
By the end, with the running time pushing past the two-hour mark, it's reasonable to ask: Just who are these people?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
October 20, 2011
There is nothing wrong with its reach, but its grasp of genre elements is random.
"Dee" doesn't shoot for the gravitas of Zhang Yimou's "Hero." It doesn't approach that film's magnificent sensory impact, either, or the artistic romanticism that made "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" such a success here.
Three decades into his career, Tsui Hark stands as one of the movies' great entertainers, displaying a dancer's sense of rhythm and movement and manipulating physical space with an abandon worthy of Chuck Jones.
