characters are not enough

The story of Di Renjie is too weak. How could Liang Jiahui, a big villain, basically not mention it before, and finally suddenly say that he is the murderer? There is little foreshadowing, not only the reasoning is far-fetched, but the character building is also far-fetched, and it is strange that the last sentence he shouted "I will not lose" is not empty. In fact, to make a commercial film well, the story still has to start with the characters and their relationships. Only by changing the characters and interacting with the characters can the story evolve in an orderly manner. (Of course, the plot comes first, except for films that express a sense of fate). As everyone knows, the investigation is just a coat, the real interesting is the characters. This film has too little overall foreshadowing for the evolution of the relationship between characters, and pays too much attention to the scene display. Di Renjie and Pei Donglai were fine, from the beginning of mutual dissatisfaction to the hand in hand, at least a scene where Pei Donglai watched Di Renjie solve the mystery of spontaneous combustion was added in the middle, so the transition was more natural. But Pei Donglai and Jing'er are too far-fetched. How could one second of jealousy, the next to fall in love, and Pei Donglai to sacrifice himself to save each other? There is also the triangular relationship between Di Renjie and Wu Zetian and Jinger, which is too little, but it is intended to exaggerate those few emotional moments. Although the meaning is there, it is still unclear.
In the investigation team of three, Shangguan Jinger seems to play an administrative role, Di Renjie is full of brains to investigate the case (really like Tsui Hark himself), Pei Donglai is paving the way for Di Renjie in business, while taking care of the administration Personnel Jinger's emotions, he is the one who really controls the overall situation.
The design of Tongtian Buddha is not bad. The humanistic concept is combined with the scene design. The literary and martial arts can be perfectly integrated with the scene, and indeed participates in the whole film as a character. The ghost city is completely a spectacle, just a shell.
But in the ghost city, Deng Chao's performance was too brilliant, using both ruthlessness and tenderness, stepping on centipedes and turning back to save a group of female fans. And what impressed me most was the line "Aren't you able to clone? Fen Ah", the character's ruthlessness and arrogance are undoubtedly revealed, revealing the personality created by loneliness and sharpness. After reading the introduction, I realized that it was originally created by Deng Chao. While everyone else was fooling around, only he, responsive, was a living person. In the ghost market scene, Di Renjie was dedicated to protecting the donkey, Shangguan Jinger was dedicated to catching the real murderer and justifying himself and Wu Zetian. Only Pei Donglai was hesitant, responsive, and interacted with many people, so he grabbed the scene.
Compared with Andy Lau who plays everyone like Andy Lau, Li Bingbing's hard work can't match Deng Chao's style. Deng Chao's acting skills are too powerful. The whole play is fortunate to have Pei Donglai.
It is said that it is Tsui Hark's return work, Tongtian Buddha and Ghost Market are a bit of the past, and Li Bingbing's passionate play is very similar to copying from "The Undefeated of the East". There is also a gimmick of spontaneous combustion. It was as successful as "Sherlock Holmes" before, even if there is no reference, it is not too much.

View more about Detective Dee: The Mystery of the Phantom Flame reviews