# At long last a Judge Dee movie, but....... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-long-last-a-judge-dee-movie-but/597421 "2011-09-24T02:24:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-long-last-a-judge-dee-movie-but/597421/1 "2011-09-24T02:24:44Z")
For years I’ve been hoping for another movie based on Judge Dee. Ever since I stumbled across Nicholas Meyer’s wonderful _Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders_, based on Robert H. van Gulik’s _the Haunted Monastery_, I’ve been looking for more. I’ve read van Gulik’s entire series of books based on the career of the historical Djien-Djieh Dee and his translation of the 18th century _Dee Goong An_ that inspired it. I’ve even read Eleanor Cooney and Daniel Altieri’s \*_Deception_, which is based on the same historical character (and which keeps him a detective). I’ve looked for the six-part British TV series based on the books (no luck) and for other, more recent Judge Dee books by others (which have not, AFAIK, been translated into English). There was a rumor many years ago that Paul Verhooven was hoing to do a big-budget Dee movie, but it never happened. Now the American release of **detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame** has been released. That “Detective Dee”, rather than Judge Dee" ought to be the tipoff. Van Gulik’s Dee this ain’t. Nor the Dee of the _Dee Goong An_. Since it deals with Dee’s run-in with the Empress Wu Zetian, it is an awful lot closer to Cooney and Altieri’s book. Only with more wire work. Dee was, in van Gulik’s books, a skilled swordsman, but not a _Crouching Tiger_-style martial artist. The reviews I’ve seen hint at supernatural facets, as well. Hopefully these are only as real as in old-tiome Scooby Doo. The Dee I’ve come to love has no truck with the supernatural. We’ll see, but I think I’m not going to like this. A wire-flying Dee without Chao Tai, Ma Joong, Tao Gan, and Sargeant Hoong will be disappointing. > **[Judge Dee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_Dee)** > > Judge Dee, or Judge Di, is a semi-fictional character based on the historical figure Di Renjie, county magistrate and statesman of the Tang court. The character appeared in the 18th-century Chinese detective and gong'an crime novel Di Gong An. After Robert van Gulik came across it in an antiquarian book store in Tokyo, he translated the novel into English and then used the style and characters to write his own original Judge Dee historical mystery stories. > The series is set in Tang dynasty China... > **[Judge Dee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Dee)** > > Judge Dee, or Judge Di, is a semi-fictional character based on the historical figure Di Renjie, county magistrate and statesman of the Tang court. The character appeared in the 18th-century Chinese detective and gong'an crime novel Di Gong An. After Robert van Gulik came across it in an antiquarian book store in Tokyo, he translated the novel into English and then used the style and characters to write his own original Judge Dee historical mystery stories. > The series is set in Tang dynasty China... > **[Deception: A Novel of Mystery and Madness in Ancient China: Cooney, Eleanor,...](https://www.amazon.com/Deception-Novel-Mystery-Madness-Ancient/dp/0380708728)** > > Deception: A Novel of Mystery and Madness in Ancient China \[Cooney, Eleanor, Altieri, Daniel\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Deception: A Novel of Mystery and Madness in Ancient China ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-long-last-a-judge-dee-movie-but/597421/2 "2011-09-28T16:49:44Z")
Yeah, the first I heard of this was a newspaper ad, and I was thrilled. Then I discovered that it was only in very narrow release, and Houston does not get anything that is not in super-wide release, so I was not going to see it anytime soon. Then I heard about the wire-work, and my excitement faded. I will still see it when I get a chance, which will probably be when Netflix (sorry, Quickster) makes the DVD available. I am cautiously optimistic that it will be as good as Hero, but I would love to see a real Judge Dee movie. > [@](#): > > The Dee I’ve come to love has no truck with the supernatural. Of course, the original Judge Dee stories evidently usually had supernatural elements. Van Gulik chose \*Dee Goong An \*to translate specifically because it had very little supernatural, and of course his own versions had very little or none, but I can’t complain if Tsui Hark was going back to the original sources. Ah, heck, who am I kidding. Of course I can complain. I am a great complainer. BTW, I visited the Wikipedia page, which says: > [@](#): > > The series is now being continued by french author Frédéric Lenormand. referring to the van Gulik stories. Amazon has nothing by Lenormand–anyone heard of this? (Edited to add) And now I have checked and I see that the movie has opened in Houston. I will see it by the weekend and report back. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-long-last-a-judge-dee-movie-but/597421/3 "2011-10-02T00:08:24Z")
Well, now I can’t find it in Houston. Either I was wrong before or it came and went in a flash. Back to planning to see it on DVD in December ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-long-last-a-judge-dee-movie-but/597421/4 "2011-10-02T17:11:41Z")
I saw this Friday and enjoyed it. It’s playing in 2 theaters in the Chicago area. I saw it at Evanston Century. I’ve been a Tsui Hark fan since I saw his 1983 Wuxia film [Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086308/) (“updated” in 2001 as [Zu Warriors](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286098/)) and I’ve seen several other of his films, but I’d never seen one in the theater, which is where they should be seen to get the full impact. As expected, it was gorgeous, sumptuous, dazzling, beautiful, and more, if I were to go get my thesaurus. Just breathtaking. The story was, as expected from a Tsui Hark/Wuxia movie, interesting, melodramatic and very convoluted. I’m not familiar with the book and don’t know or care if it was faithful. It’s a Tsui Hark Wuxia movie! That’s good enough for me. I hope there are sequels.