Borgarkeri
A bit overrated, but still an amazing film
Helllins
It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
MartinHafer
In the 1960s and 70s, actor Khigh Dhiegh repeatedly guest starred as the evil Red Chinese agent, Wo Fat. Here, Dhiegh stars in a film about ancient China. While he was quite good and looked right to be playing a Chinese detective, Dhiegh is actually NOT Asian at all!! As for the rest of the cast, they are a variety of Asian-Americans of Chinese, Japanese and Korean heritage.The fact that there was ever a made for TV movie based on the world's first detective story is unusual because so often films are based on western stories....and this one is from 7th century China. It's the story of a Chinese judge who must unravel a murder and find a missing woman...and as the story progresses, bodies keep piling up! The story is interesting and enjoyable...especially the ending that involves a bear! This is an enjoyable film and the only real deficit is that it's a bit talky and occasionally slow. Still, worth seeing and available on YouTube.
Spiritptc
Dear All, This is an excellent movie that was part of an excellent series of books before that.I hope it will be on DVD at some point, as I would like to own it. I always look for it on TV and never see it any more.It has an excellent cast. One of the best Oriental casts I have seen for any movie. They all play there roles well, and are believable.The plot is very interesting. With all the CSI stuff, isn't it nice to see how they may have done it with out equipment, beyond a brain.Also I love the monastery spookiness, atmosphere. It is a wonderful period piece as well.Bill
James Knoppow
Another person here said that, having read all of the Dee mysteries, he thought this was a bad adaptation.I very strongly disagree. I have also read them all, and love them all. The film is different because it is a film. But the warmth, the humor, and the clever detecting is the same. I give the books a 10 and I give this film a 10.This film bears the same resemblance to it's originating books as the Charley Chan film series did to Earl Derr Biggers novels. It's nearly if not actually impossible to get everything into a movie that is in a novel, and when it's a series of novels and short stories, as here, one gets a collective sense of the central characters that no single film can possibly produce. It is true that Judge Dee written doesn't match Judge Dee filmed entirely, but then, neither did Charley Chan. The only thing I ask of a film is that it be well done, and either or both informative or entertaining.I think this film more than satisfies on all counts.
writtenbymac-1
Your reaction to this movie will probably depend on how many Judge Dee novels you've read, and whether you really liked them or not. I've read every single one of them, several times each, and love them. This TV movie does them no justice at all. In the movie, Judge Dee doesn't look or act like Judge Dee. His lieutenant, Tao Gan, doesn't look or act like Tao Gan. The movie is slow and plodding, the acting is mundane, the pace is tedious; the actors speak about one word a minute, maybe to give the illusion of a foreign language. I got none of the flavor of ancient China which is so delightful in the novels. The movie's Judge Dee comes across as a fat, bald, slow-moving, slow-thinking guy -- in the novels he's big, tough, an accomplished boxer, and extremely smart and perceptive. That said, the actual plot of the movie is mostly true to the novel. But it could have been so much better. If you liked this movie even a tiny bit, do yourself a favor and read one of the wonderful Judge Dee novels by Robert van Gulik.
