Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018) Review

“Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings” Chinese Theatrical Poster

Director: Tsui Hark
Writer: Chang Chia-lu
Cast: Mark Chao, William Feng Shaofeng, Kenny Lin Gengxin, Carina Lau, Ethan Juan, Sandra Ma, Ma Sichun, Chien Sheng, Yang Yiwei
Running Time: 132 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Before you express concern, don’t panic, the latest entry in the Detective Dee series has nothing to do with the wily sleuth investigating a crime spree instigated by Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, and Leon Lai. With that disclaimer out of the way, we can turn our attention to Tsui Hark’s third instalment in his successful detective story meets wuxia hybrid. The Four Heavenly Kings has made an interesting journey to the screen, with initial rumors suggesting the detective’s third outing would be a tale involving time-travel. Such a scenario would have seen the older Detective Dee, portrayed by Andy Lau in 2010’s Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, team up with his younger self, portrayed by Mark Chao in 2013’s Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon. However when Lau suffered an injury, after falling off a horse in January 2017, his long recovery time seemed to put paid to this idea.

So it is The Four Heavenly Kings also marks an unspoken handover of the Detective Dee role from Lau to Chao. Gone is the ‘Young’ preface from the title, suggesting that Chao will now be our detective of choice for future instalments. While such a decision will no doubt be a blow to Andy Lau’s significant fan base, Chao made for a worthy replacement in Rise of the Sea Dragon, and it’s good to see him back after uninspiring turns in Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe and Enter the Warrior’s Gate. Also back are plenty of other familiar faces, including William Feng (Painted Skin 2: The Resurrection) as Dee’s rival/partner, Carina Lau (Deadful Melody) as the Empress, and Kenny Lin (Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back) as the bumbling sidekick.

After seeing off the sea dragon in the last instalment, Dee is gifted the indestructible Dragon Taming Mace, the ultimate weapon for dishing out justice. However the Empress feels somewhat irked at Dee taking ownership of such a legendary weapon, so orders the head of the Golden Guards (William Feng) to retrieve it. Not entirely convinced Feng has the capabilities to do so, Lau also hires 4 figures from the martial arts world to aid him in his mission, whose skills range from being able to control the weather, to brandishing a pair of scimitars big enough to slice a person in half. A bigger threat reveals itself though when it turns out an ancient Indian sect are in town, who go by the name of the Wind Warriors, seeking revenge on the Imperial family for their past mistreatment. Can Dee handle the threat of the Wind Warriors, an untrusting Empress, and the constant attempts to steal his Mace by a reluctant Feng and his cohorts?

Anyone who’s seen the first 2 movies will no doubt know the answer is “Of course he can.” The charm of the series though doesn’t lay so much in if Dee is going to succeed or not, but rather the reveal of the mystery at the heart of the story. In the first it was the issue of people spontaneously combusting, and in the second it was the mysterious creature that lurked in the depths of the sea. The mystery is what keeps the audience watching, and with a visionary director like Tsui Hark at the helm, we’re also guaranteed a number of fantastical set pieces thrown in the mix as well, with some of the best use of 3D technology I’ve seen. The Detective Dee series marks the first time for Hark to consistently return to a character since he helmed 4 of the Once Upon a Time in China movies in the 90’s, and the world of Detective Dee (and the characters that inhabit it) seems to be one he’s come to enjoy working in.

The main issue I found with The Four Heavenly Kings then, is that it gives away its mystery far too early into its bloated 125 minute runtime. We learn fairly early on that the Wind Warriors are able to use magic to cause hallucinations and influence people’s thoughts, which provides the explanation for why certain characters are acting the way they are, but as a result we’re robbed of a build-up to a big reveal. Perhaps it was my own expectations from the structure of the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and Rise of the Sea Dragon that resulted in my disappointment, however once it was clear what’s going on, and it becomes about following Dee in his pursuit of the Wind Warriors, I found my interest waning.

Indeed The Four Heavenly Kings doesn’t just play with the structure the series set out in previous instalments, it also shifts the focus onto different characters. As the end credits rolled, there was a distinct impression that Detective Dee had played little more than a supporting character in his own movie. Instead, we spend a lot more time with William Feng in his role as the leader of the Golden Guards. One of the actors to appear in all 3 movies, Feng looks to be having a great time here, chewing up scenery with his intense stares and constant scowl, he steals the show whenever onscreen. Likewise for Kenny Lin, who’s given a whole sub-plot in which he and Water Moon (Ma Sichuan), one of the martial artists that Lau has hired, fall for each other (as well as randomly revealing their shared Turkic ethnicity).

Action choreography duties have also been handed over. Hark and Yuen Bun had developed a solid working relationship together, with Bun being one of the few old-school action directors to successfully transition to the CGI driven action aesthetic of recent years. It’s a shame then that he’s missing from the latest entry, and his absence is one that’s felt. Replacing him is Lin Feng, who dials back the martial arts action, and instead relies more on the element of spectacle to convey a sense of awe. If anything, Hark seems to be utilising both The Four Heavenly Kings (and to a lesser degree, The Thousand Faces of Dunjia which he produced), to recreate many of the action concepts from 2001’s The Legend of Zu. The sequel to his 1983 classic was a bold but misguided attempt at a large scale effects driven fantasy flick, and it was clear in many scenes that the technology wasn’t up to the level of creating what Hark was envisioning.

Just like in The Thousand Faces of Dunjia, here we have more red tentacles on display, and the oversized scimitars that one of the assassins wields are more than a little reminiscent of Ekin Cheng’s bladed weapon in The Legend of Zu. But what are all these doing in a Detective Dee movie? To Hark’s credit, the fact that hallucinations play a big part in the story allow him to unleash his imagination to full effect once it gets to the finale. Before that though, there’s an overly long scene with a Chinese dragon statue that comes to life, exposition delivered via a floating fish, and Dwayne Johnson’s mutated silverback gorilla from Rampage. In fact the huge white (Buddhist) gorilla is the centrepiece of the insane finale, which pits it against a monstrous beast made out of tentacles and eye balls, as we get a full-on Tang dynasty version of a kaiju movie. The actors may have little else to do than stare, but it’s a scene which is undeniably Tsui Hark.

Therein lies both The Four Heavenly Kings biggest strength and also its biggest problem. With the 3^rd entry Hark has taken Detective Dee and his cohorts, and thrown them into a movie which is closer to the all-out fantasy of his Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back sequel, than anything we’ve seen in the series itself. Dee does very little investigation himself, and his talents are often shown when he’s not onscreen (the way he keeps the Mace from being stolen when it’s not on his body is ingenious), meaning the ‘Detective’ in the title could have been done away with just as much as the ‘Young’. Forfeiting investigation for an overreliance on spectacle, particularly during the mid-section The Four Heavenly Kings becomes a plodding experience to get through, and the pacing struggles to fully recover by the time we’re nearing the 2 hour mark.

While I still consider myself a fan of the Detective Dee series, and indeed anything that involves Tsui Hark in the director’s chair, the decision to focus more on political intrigue rather than mysterious happenings marks The Four Heavenly Kings as the weakest in the series. The spectacle may indeed be impressive, with Hark’s name allowing for budget to be a non-issue, however spectacle needs to compliment story, not the other way around. That’s what the first 2 Detective Dee movies got right, and this one gets wrong. The latest instalment is also the first time that the title has no bearing on the actual plot, with The Four Heavenly Kings in question appearing as statues in just a single scene, and carrying no further relevance. For anyone that’s ever thought it would be cool to make an ancient China version of King Kong though, you’re definitely in the right place.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5.5/10