Government officials are spontaneously combusting. The empress brings a former detective out of prison to solve the case.
This is what one would expect from a modern wuxia film. The plot was slightly convoluted, but that may have come from presentation rather than writing. The few main characters stood out and I think Detective Dee came across correctly. The dialogue and acting were very much what I would expect from the date and genre. There really weren't any surprises. Obviously, the sets looked expensive and authentic. There were also some CG shots of large portions of the city. I could tell because they looked too clean and repetitive. The camera-work and editing follow in the same style as New Dragon Gate Inn. Lots of close-ups, quick editing cuts and lots of camera movement. Fighting and special effects may as well be commented on as the same item. What sticks in my memory most is the underground fight in the water area where logs came up out of the water and were used as ground to walk on as well as for weapons. This is another film in which there were lots of impossible jumps and acrobatics, but no real flying. The audio was in Chinese and the version that I got had hard-coded English subtitles. Dialogue, music and sound effects were mixed correctly. IMDb lists a rating of 6.6/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 80% Tomatometer with 62% Audience Score for an average of 69.3%. I rate it o.k. because it was predictable. I knew exactly what it would be before watching it.
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