Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon

I bought this movie sight unseen as I loved the first Detective Dee movie so much, a lot of that was due to the presence of Andy Lau, but I really enjoyed Mark Chao in the lead here. An excellent plot, cast, and special effects makes this one worth seeing. I disagree that one must see the 3-D version to fully appreciate the movie, as this "flat" version is fine. Most movies look better at the movie theater if one wants to take that view, but how many of us own a movie theater? We must do with what he have and for me that is a "2-D" TV in my living room.There is suspense and mystery here as Dee finds his way as a new member of the local justice department, he is aided by a somewhat humorous sidekick (medical assistant) who he meets in the infirmary and convinces to go along with him. There is a beautiful lady in distress of course, played by "Angelababy." Then there is the monster, actually two monsters, a man sized one and the sea creature, where did they come from and what will they do? One of the mysteries in the first part of the film is differentiating between the good guys and the bad guys. Carina Lau reprises her role as The Empress.There are many awesome computer effects and some fall short of the mark, but the sheer scale of this movie makes small errors forgivable. If you liked the earlier Dee movie then you'll probably enjoy this one too, a Tsui Hark movie is usually full of action with an interesting cast, I haven't enjoyed all his films as I find them a bit too much but this one is one I'll watch over and over.

Of the the three Detective Dee movies, Rise of the Sea dragon is my favorite. This 2nd Dee movie (prequel to The Mystery of the Fanthom Flame with well known veteran Andy Lau as Detective Dee) is much more exciting story - Mark Chao is fantastic as Dee making the great Andy Lau look dull in comparison. The story is well told by Tsui Hark - excellent character development, fantastic swordplay action, and flows well. I have rewatched it many times and still get enormously entertained even with subtitles. If you're in the mood for a suspenseful Chinese swordplay movie, I cannot recommend this enough. Enjoy !

I have been watching a lot of Chinese and Japanese theater recently. The story telling is different than the canned Hollywood scripts which may take some folks out of their comfort zone. That said, the movies I have watched have been full of great scenes, solid action, well done characters. Young Dee was no different. The action sequences were fun and I connected well with teh characters despite losing some emotional depth via subtitles. You get used to that though. The story was well told and took some fun twists and turns. The only reason I did not give this 5 stars is because I have already seen another Dee story, Phantom Flame, that I thought was slightly better and because some of the subtitles moved faster than I could read the first three words - I realize that can be a tough balance to stay with the characters on screen but I do need a moment to read what is on the screen. That only happened a few times though. About a fifth of the way through, my teen daughter plopped down beside me and started watching. She only had to ask one or two questions and part of that was because she missed the first few scenes. She really enjoyed the movie as well Overall, this was a good adventure and I hope to see more Dee movies come out in the future.

Absolutely excellent. The scenery in "Young Detective Dee" is so alive it crackles with life and is just beautiful in this production.The story is great. Detective Dee is like the James Bond of China with his cool and smarts, the difference being he is always an honorable character and doesn't indulge in tongue in cheek humor or always chasing after the women.Detective Dee is such an unflappable hero and an admirable, respectable symbol of goodness and ethics. Because he is true to his principles and to himself, he prevails for the good of all concerned. Highly recommend both "Rise of the Sea Dragon" and "Mystery of the Phantom Flame," in which the martial arts are especially amazing.I've looked all over for more Detective Dee movies but can't find anything but these two. If anyone knows of more, can you please post in the "Comments" section?Thanks, and I hope you and your children enjoy these movies as much as I did.Hope

We don't understand the middle east, the ancient cultures. This is an example of how they make an epic movie. Simply excellent, another world...a fascinating one, misterious,enigmatic, even knowing that has to be "easy" to us (both europian and america...but america means the land from alaska to the tail of south america entre argentina y chile) america is the name after Americo Vespuccio made the first drawing of the new continent Christopher Columbus discover in 1492 in the name of the crown of Spain.....I made the history much a"like John Oliver" Last week tonight....but yes calling America as a synonimous of US is a mistake...an enormous historical mistake...and then John to close the program will joing a parade of ev'ry traditional people of country like the South america indians with their colorful cloths and hats. Don't forget the "charro" and "china Poblana" of Mexico

On the plus side, "Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon" is a seamless prequel to "Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame" that's a lot of fun to watch. Two things of note: watch this movie through all the credits. You'll be rewarded. Also, for you K-drama fans out there, wait till you see who has a role in this movie (although he's credited under a slightly different name). Hint: his character's name begins with a "Y".On the minus side (big time), although I enjoyed this movie immensely, I took off 1 star because the subtitles went by faster than the Roadrunner. So if you want to enjoy the dialogue as much as the visuals, be prepared to use freeze frame. A lot. Very annoying.

I love the Detective Dee movies this prequel is imaginative and the 3d is incredible. I have deducted 1 star because the German distributors have yet again missed the trick of including English subtitles which would have increased their sales. I can get by with the German dubbed version but there are a lot of English 3d fans who would have purchased this if English subtitles had been included.

Fun romp with predictable mid-air sword play and a woman in power causing trouble. Lol. Was disappointed in the large amount of time given to Feng, as he isn't the main character. Admittedly, we only bought it because Mark Chao is sporting facial hair (ala Mo Yuan) and playing Dee.

Wow, could not believe they could have made such a bad story.Definetly the worst of the Detective Dee series.

Great movie from hong kong cinema this U.S import blu ray is region free so it works on UK blu ray players.

Great