As cinematic reinventions of Chinese historical figures go, veteran filmmaker Tsui Hark's portrayal of the 7th-century politician Di Renjie is among the most radical in recent times. Tsui presents him as a lean and nimble investigator, adept at both swordplay and seduction.
'Being able to fight a good fight is crucial to our representation of the man,' Tsui says of the character driving his latest martial arts spectacle, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. It marks something of a comeback for the director, whose 2008 outings - horror flick Missing and comedy All About Women - were critical and box office disappointments.
Detective Dee moved away from past depictions of the Tang dynasty chancellor as a plump, middle-aged aristocrat. Recent television serials have cast heavy-set actors, including Liang Guanhua in mainland period drama The Amazing Detective Di Renjie and Kent Cheng Chak-sze in TVB's The Greatness of a Hero.
However, Tsui has his rationale for going against the grain.
'Just look at how we see someone similar to Di, say, Judge Pao [the Song dynasty official]. He doesn't know martial arts so there's always a group of people protecting him ... but Di, here merely a detective, wouldn't have that kind of security detail with him. Going from there, we imagined him to be a suave lone ranger who could fight off his enemies on his own.'
The story is set around the coronation of Wu Zetian, who dissolved Tang rule in 690 by declaring herself the empress - and thus becoming the first and only monarch of her Zhou dynasty, which lasted only 15 years.