While watching this it is hard to imagine this was directed by the same man who made such realistic dramas as Yellow Earth, Farewell, My Concubine, King of the Children, The Big Parade and Temptress Moon in the first phase of his career. Those films dealt with people in their everyday lives - teachers, soldiers, village life, Chinese opera performers and a wealthy family in decline at the beginning of the 20th century. But in 2005 Chen Kaige jumped on the Wuxia bandwagon after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers with his film The Promise. It has been years since I saw it, but The Promise was dreadful with special effects that made it look like a Looney Tunes cartoon at times. This film isn't so much a wuxia as a historical drama based on true characters but immersed in fantasy, eye-popping colors. spectacular sets and nearly drowning in CGI. The look and use of CGI are overwhelming at times and unnecessary but at other times they are fabulous eye-candy as you luxuriate in the visuals like a baby starring at bright baubles.


It is also a wonderful mystery of a possible murder that took place 30-years previously among the Royal family and the court. It kind of falls apart at the end but for much of the film it is like a Sherlock Holmes story with his faithful companion Watson. As these two unravel the complex mystery layer by layer it is great fun - but on top of this is also a layer of magic and the supernatural that doesn't work as well. For me anyways. They could have just stuck with the gorgeous visuals and the mystery without all the hocus pocus, illusions and the killer cat. Though this is based on the Japanese novel (a Chinese-Japanese co-production) Sramana Kukai by author Baku Yumemakua, I would not be surprised if the Detective Dee films influenced this. Both in fact, take place during the Tang Dynasty and have elements of fantasy, mystery and court intrigue.


It begins with a black talking cat. The cat informs the wife (Kitty Zhang Yuqi - The Mermaid, CJ7) of Yunqiao, the head of the King's Guard (Eric Qin Hao) that money is buried under a tree in their backyard and in fact it is. It comes in handy in his visits to the best brothel in town that is a swirl of dancing and gorgeous women. The elderly King seems to be possessed and they bring in a Japanese monk who has proficiency with exorcisms. But the King dies before he has a chance. This is Kukai (Sometani Shota). Kukai was a real person (774 - 835) who founded the Shingon School of Buddhism. He is also credited with inventing the form of Kana writing. Here though he is still a young man just come from Japan to study.


He meets his Watson (Huang Xuan) working as a scribe in the court and they soon team up to investigate Emperor Xuanzong's strange death. He is Bai Letian (772 - 846) who was to become one of China's greatest poets. In fact, he is working on a poem about a famous courtesan Yang Guifei (719 - 756) who died under mysterious circumstances. She (Sandrin Pinna) is considered one of the great beauties of China and was the courtesan of the King who just died. Other mysterious deaths are to follow and cat prints are all over the place. Their investigation takes them 30 years into the past during a rebellion against the Emperor and the death of Lady Yang


At times it loses its train of thought and really goes CGI heavy - the cat in particular is quite poorly done - with illusions upon illusions from three masters. Since this film Kaige has directed two big propaganda films, The Battle at Lake Changjin I & II which sound distasteful as hell. He had been in the Red Guard as a youth who denounced his own father, so perhaps this is not too surprising. There are no Hong Kong stars in this which is a bit unusual I think but it has a few other Japanese actors, Abe Hiroshi being the best-known. It was a big hit, released in a dubbed version in America and won a bunch of awards at the Asian Film Awards. A lot of these Mainland historical fantasy films have terrible phony CGI that makes me cringe but these are kind of fun.

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