Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a movie produced by the budding movie industry of China. Directed by Tsui Hark, the movie takes place during the Tang Dynasty, just before the inauguration of Empress Wu Zetian. It is a fictional adventure of the famous Di Renji, a chancellor of both the Tang and the Zhou dynasties. Although the movie portrays many of its characters to have superhuman abilities while depicting a fictional event, the movie's setting and some of the characters are historically accurate.
The city of Chang’an served as the capital to both the Tang and Zhou Dynasties [D]. Within the city walls the director shows a bustling city center filled with markets selling both domestic and foreign goods. A group of people are seen playing on a Setar and a Bofu while an Umayyad trader exchanges money with a local dealer. This is historically accurate as the city of Chang’an was the center of commerce for the entire Tang Empire. People from around the globe would come along the Silk Road to trade for the luxuries that the city produced.
The movie starts with a diplomat from the Umayyad Caliphate being shown a sixty-six yard Buddha statue that has been commissioned for the Empress’ inauguration. At the time of the coronation the Caliphate’s territory separated the Tang Dynasty from Europe and Africa [A], which allowed the Caliphate to position themselves as Europe's and Africa’s source of trade goods from the Tang Dynasty. So, it stands to order that a diplomat of the Caliphate would have been sent to show political support of the new Emperor in an attempt to strengthen or maintain the political and economic ties of the two dynasties.
The statue of Buddha is shown to be built in the center of the ad...
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...rs of the movie took their time to try to make many of the small details of the movie historically accurate, for this period.
Works Cited
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Pantome Flame. Dir. Hark Tsui. Perf. Tony Leung Ka Fai,
Chao Deng, Carina Lau. Hengdian World Studios, 2010. DVD.
Du You 杜佑, comp. Tongdian 通典. Vol. 115. Print.
Hawting, G. R. The First Dynasty of Islam: the Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750. London:
Routledge, 2000.
Lewis, Mark Edward. China's Cosmopolitan Empire: the Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, MA:
Belknap of Harvard UP, 2009.
McNair, Amy. Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist
Sculpture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, 2007.
New Book of Tang新唐書. Beijng: Zhonghua shuju press 中華書局, 1956
Zizhi Tongjian資治通鑒. Beijng: Zhonghua shuju press 中華書局, 1976
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Judge Dee, during the Tang Dynasty, was a well-known statesman and a magistrate to a town called Chang-Ping. He was known to be a famous detective, in which he could solve all crimes. In the Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, he is faced with three murders, which develop throughout the book. First of the three murders was the murder of the two silk merchants. Second was the sudden death of a young husband, and thirdly was the poisoning of a bride in her nuptial chamber.
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The Mongols conquered and then united China. This created peace among the country and led to other great things. One of these great things is the Silk Road. The Silk Road is a long trading route that was created when China was united as they had started
In the movie, the representation of the time is mostly accurate and the writer’s views are reflected ...
The Chinese New year marks a time of celebration, tradition, and new beginnings. The Chinese people celebrate their hard work during this time by resting and enjoying time with family. The tradition to rest, and close businesses is so that luck may come upon them for the upcoming year. In the novel, Donald Duk written by Frank Chin the Duk family takes these traditions very seriously. They are a Chinese family living in America, in the Chinatown district of San Francisco where this novel takes place. The Duk family has immigrated to San Francisco however their children including the protagonist, Donald Duk was born in America. Donald is an eleven-year-old boy who struggles with his overwhelming need to be American and his undeniable Chinese
The Silk Road was a series of trade and cultural transmission routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the West and East by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, and soldiers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time. It was the most important trade route at the time, and was very important to both empires.
Specifically careful examination of events in the years leading up to the film’s release, in combination with its characteristics and tones and the comparisons
During this time in China the Han dynasty was responsible for the greatest expansion of China, to what is now southern China, northern Vietnam, and parts of Korea and had trade with Central Asia, India, Persia. Because of the expansion of the territory they were able to trade with more countries. This was furthered by the discovery of the Silk Road in 2nd century BC. The Silk Road, discovered by a Chinese ambassador Zhang Qian, was a series of trade routes from China to the Mediterranean Sea. The Silk Road got its name from the amount of silk used for trade during the Han dynasty. This route was used to travel from West to East on land they traveled to India, Persia, Arabia, and Europe, while traveling by sea they traveled through Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. These paths were used by merchants, pilgrim, monks, soldiers, nomads, and urban dwellers.
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...ctual roles, or adding in exciting events that revise the storyline. These changes are beneficial to producers because they engage a large audience and generate massive profits. In contrast, they do not always have a positive effect on viewers. Although they are entertaining which is an important aspect of theatre culture, they also are often misguiding. Many spectators take movies at face value, without considering that they may not exactly qualify as primary source material. Even when an historical event is fabricated to teach or enhance a moral message, it still doesn’t compensate for bending the truth. Moviegoer’s may have a positive experience and gain some skewed historical perspective, perhaps better than what they knew before the movie, but they loose out on the truth and therefore, a genuine understanding of the historical event, and its significance.
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ChinaTown, directed by Roman Polanski, is a non-traditional hard-nosed detective film made in the 70's. The typical elements of character type are there; J.J. Gittes (a private detective in LA) played by Jack Nicholson is the central character, sharing the spotlight is Fay Dunaway playing the femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray. This film breaks all types of norms when compared to the hard-nosed detective films it is modeled after. The film is filled with allusions to the Big Sleep, especially taken from scenes of Marlowe and Vivian. Chinatown has formal elements indicative that it is going to be in the style of traditional Film Noir hardboiled detective, until you examine the characters' personalities next to the story content.
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done in order for the movie to fit exactly into place. In the story the little details is what makes it