Murder most foul

[fidelioscabinet]

So, whether you call him Judge Dee or Detective Dee, Di Renjie, one of the great officials of the Tang Dynasty, has a place in the popular Chinese popular culture that's all his own. He served Empress Wu Zetian in many important positions, and managed to do a great many good things while in government service. He was also, as legend would have it,

Comments

[desperance]

Go with the Mandarin. A friend of mine learned her Mandarin this way; and - I speak from experience - you lose very little of the pleasure of the film, from not nowing what the hell is going on.

[fidelioscabinet]

You are wise, and I shall be mindful of this in the future.

[anonymous]

If you want stories about Judge Dee that are a little closer to historically accurate, read Robert van Gulik's novels about him. For even more fun, see if you can find a copy of the movie "Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders" made from one of van Gulik's books. It stars Khigh Dheigh, and a cast of Asian actors (it was incredibly progressive in 1974 to not use white actors in yellow pancake makeup).

[fidelioscabinet]

I remember the van Gulik books from the paperback reissue done in the 1980s--I'll see if I can run across a copy of the movie.