Detective Dee und das Geheimnis der Phantomflammen

In 689 A.D., the Empress Wu Zetian (Carina Lau) is building a 66 m high statue of Buddha for her inauguration as the first empress of China under the objections and conspiracy of the other clans.

When the engineer responsible for the construction mysteriously dies with a spontaneous combustion of his body, the superstitious workers are afraid since the man removed the good luck charms from the main pillar. There is an investigation of Pei Donglai (Chao Deng) and another investigator that also dies after withdrawing the amulets.

Empress Wu assigns her loyal assistant Shangguan Jing'er (Li Bing Bing) to release the exiled Detective Dee (Andy Lau) from his imprisonment to investigate with Donglai and Jing'er the mystery of the deaths. They ride in a mystic and epic adventure to unravel the mystery.

"Di Renjie" is a mystic and melodramatic adventure with a magnificent cinematography and wonderful choreography of fights. However, the plot entwines action with moments of soap-opera that might be culturally appreciated by Asian viewers, but absolutely boring and breaking the pace of the first-half of the film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Detetive D e o Império Celestial" ("Detective D and the Celestial Empire")