The director's latest martial arts flick, starring a Tang Dynasty Sherlock Holmes character, is all set to take theaters by storm. Liu Wei reports

Hong Kong director Tsui Hark returns to the genre he is best known for - martial arts - with Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, that releases nationwide on Wednesday. This time he focuses on a Chinese Sherlock Holmes of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), ancient China's most prosperous period.

The film combines martial arts, mystery and magic, enhanced by modern production design and computer-generated imagery. It revolves around a court judge Dee, who is assigned by empress Wu Zetian to investigate the mysterious case of people being burned alive. He soon unearths a political conspiracy behind the strange deaths.

The character is based on a real historical figure named Di Renjie, prime minister in the court of Wu Zetian, China's only empress. In the 1950s Dutch diplomat Robert van Gulik created a series of detective novels based on him, popularizing the judge in the West.

Tsui's interpretation of the detective and the times he lived in has little to do with these novels; he presents his own impressions of the Tang Dynasty.

"The Tang Dynasty was a rather futuristic place," Tsui says. "The capital was a real metropolis, very open where people had frequent communication with Western countries. It was a time of romantic poets, such as Li Bai, and if you examine the frescos, you will find the women's costumes were bold, imaginative and beautiful."

The film's opening scene has a stunning 200-meter-tall Buddha statue, equipped with bridges and movable mechanical parts, not unlike modern elevators. Standing on the statue's eyes offers a panoramic view of the entire capital.

An early morning bazaar where vendors peddle stolen goods, that reminds one of Pirates of the Caribbean, was created by pouring 2,000 tons of water into a natural stalactite cave.

There is even a talking deer that masters kungfu, and a beetle that injects poison into people.

Many would agree with Tsui that the Tang period was an enchanting one. During its heyday it was one of the most powerful empires in the world, with booming trade along the Silk Road, and a renaissance in literature and the arts. Even today China Towns overseas literally mean "the Tang people's street", in Chinese.

Hong Kong veteran Andy Lau, who plays Dee, updates the stereotypical image of his character in folk tales and TV series. He is no longer a 50-something sporting a long beard, but younger, more handsome and endowed with a sense of humor.

While the empress Wu was widely perceived as magnificent and powerful in her smart European-style dresses, she did have her moments of fear, doubt and anxiety.

There is also Dee's assistant Pei Donglai, an albino who always dresses in black, and Wu's servant Jing'er, who is more like a swordsman than a maid.

Tsui says if he had a time machine he would love to go back to the Tang period.

But he is quick to add that since he is not as smart as Dee, nor as powerful as Wu, he would be quite happy being Wang the Donkey, an eerie old hermit and magician.

"Wu risked her life to rule and Dee had to constantly outsmart the others. Only the hermit was free. That appeals to me."

The film marks Tsui's return to the kungfu genre after two other efforts, Missing and All about Women, did not win him the acclaim he enjoyed for his 1990s martial arts works like the Wong Fei-hung series and Dragon Inn. But he refuses to admit he is repeating anything.

"I am not returning to anything, I am moving forward all the time," he says. "There are few romantic and humorous detectives like Dee in Chinese period dramas.

"I want to win him a seat in the celebrity hall of world detectives."