Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013)

People are voting emotionally.

Lack of good storyline.

Absolutely the worst movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Young Detective Dee is the adventures of a youthful Sherlock in Medieval China with state of the art CGI and a sea monster.The film starts with warships sent by Empress Wu destroyed by an unseen monster. Young Dee arrives in the capital city intending to become a detective with the Da Lisi police force. He already has a rival in Yuchi.However there is another monster attacking the city linked with a courtesan. Dee links up with a medic to find answers and gets the attention of the Empress.The film is fragmented with many plot lines, its a while before we see Yee's ability in detective work. What we do get is a sprawling adventure with gargantuan set pieces mixed with impressive CGI and some sly humour.At times the action overpowers the film which could had done been with being more concise. In some sense Young Dee is overshadowed in his own movie.It is still an impressive introduction of recent Chinese action- adventure cinema.

"Di Renjie: Shen Du Long Wang" or "Young Detective Dee: Rise Of The Sea Dragon" is a prequel to "Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Dragon Flame". It takes place in the beginning years of Tang Dynasty under the reign of the weak Emperor Gaozong and just a few years before his cruel wife Wu Zetian would take his position and declare the second Zhou dynasty for fifteen years. This second movie shows us a young detective who arrives at the imperial city and has to face a lot of adversary, jealousy and mistrust. The case itself features two different story lines. First of all, there is a giant sea monster controlled by a mysterious enemy that attacks the imperial fleet. The other story features the beautiful courtesan Yin who is about to be sacrificed in order to appease the Gods and therefor the sea monster but who gets first kidnapped by a gang of thieves and later on by a strange human lizard creature. Both stories are loosely bound together and lead the detective and his new colleagues and friends to an adventurous mission on Bat Island.If you liked the first movie of the franchise, my guess is that you will also appreciate the sequel. It's really a matter of nuance if you prefer the first or the second movie as both pretty much have the same flaws and strengths. Just as the first instalment, the sequel convinces with elegant and typically exaggerated fighting scenes in Tsui Hark's unique signature style that goes back to classic Hongkong movies of the late eighties and early nineties like "A Chinese Ghost Story" or "Once Upon A Time In China". I must admit that the over-the-top fighting scenes on the ships towards the end of the movie are probably the most impressive sequences of both movies.The modern elements can be found in several decent CGI effects for the monsters in this movie as well as during the destruction of the fleet and the showdown on and around Bat Island. I must admit that I thought that some of these modern elements did not fit to the historical settings which are colourful and beautiful to watch but not always authentic. It's simply strange to see ultra-modern visual elements in a movie that takes place in the seventh century. I prefer the more limited but authentic settings of more traditional Hongkong movies.While the first movie had some more investigative elements, the sequel only features a couple of these. Detective Dee surely passes as a smart person and some of his investigative methods are still really impressive. Sadly, the movie quickly reveals friends and foes which means that there aren't any real mysteries to solve. The only element I would have liked to know isn't really answered after all. We don't get to know how the sea monster was created and how comes that it sometimes obeys the villains and sometimes it doesn't.As for the acting, the leading actors do an average job as some of them lack depth. Angela Yeung is simply a good-looking woman in love with a poet, that's it. The makers of the movie could have chosen any of the many good-looking Chinese actresses as Angela Young's character lacks uniqueness and feels like a hollow puppet to me. The jealous chief minister portrayed by Feng Shaofeng, the young prison doctor played by Lin Gengxin as well as Detective Dee himself who is now portrayed by Taiwanese-Canadian actor Mark Chao instead of Hongkong actor Andy Lau who was a little bit more charming in my opinion, all have interesting characteristics but remain somewhat superficial. Instead of focusing on special effects, the makers of the movie should have worked a little bit more on the character development.This sequel is a colourful, effect-ridden, fast-paced movie that doesn't fail to entertain and which includes a few impressive investigative methods, beautiful settings and stunning fighting scenes. On the other side, the story is much simpler than in the first film and the actors are mostly exchangeable or stereotypical as in the case of the crazy doctor for example. Fans of modern Hongkong cinema and historical fiction where traditional elements are overrun by modern effects will like this movie. Everyone else is invited to watch this fun ride once but more sophisticated viewers will probably forget about this film pretty soon. I still think that the concept behind this franchise has some potential and hope that there will be a third movie and that's why I'm willing to rate this film seven points instead of only six.

I watch a fair amount of Asian cinema so I've seen a lot. This movie really stands out!First of all the quality and quantity of special effects are very good. The interaction between the main characters, the mix of dark story lines, and the humor suburb. Overall the underlying story is interesting and compelling.It's great fantasy fun!I'm surprised this movie doesn't have a higher rating and appears to have had not much of a presence here in America. It's too bad there is no English dubbed version (not that I know off), and, or, they just didn't market it enough for a Western audience. A lot of people will probably just bump into this movie late at night at one time or another and be pleasantly surprised.If you like action movies, epic fantasy stories, etc., you are probably going to love this movie.

At the ending of the scene, the Dragon appeared. It attacked the ship. Suddenly I realized that I saw this scene before. Yes, it was from the Dead Mans Chest big octopus scene from the Pirate of the Caribbean. The producer seemed to copy it from American Movies. It is not original.Pirates of the Caribbean The Kraken Battle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq8EGbz4PuwIf you compare it, it is the same identical plot.The title is not suitable for the story. The actors performed well. Feng Shao Feng is a rising star from the TV hit. I'm Chinese but I don't speak or understand Mandarin. I watch the Chinese drama and movies from Youtube or viki.com. Sadly AMC theatre was empty. I and one couple were the only audience on thursday at 4:40 At AMC Bay (Emeryville, CA).The movies should translate in English; not subtitle. I had trouble following it because it changed too fast. Too much fighting and I'm not sure about the story. That is one problem I don't care for Chinese movies. It is all about fighting and lacked of plot. I hook on Korean drama. I also digged up some of the producer past movies. And, they were terrible. This one is amazingly well done as far as using the technology to create the product that is good as Hollywood.