Wuxia film legend Tsui Hark’s latest effort is a movie and a half crammed into one insane feature. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is an adorably strange picture—part historical drama, part murder mystery, and part fantasy epic—with perfunctory helpings of romance and court intrigue. The eponymous protagonist is enlisted by his old political rival, Empress Wu, who is about to be crowned as China’s first female emperor. She needs him to discover who is assassinating key government officials, who have recently developed a nasty habit of spontaneously combusting. The Empress doesn’t entirely trust Dee, though, so she sends her right-hand woman (who happens to be quite the badass martial artist herself) along to keep tabs on the crafty detective. A series of delightfully absurd plot complications ensue, including (but not limited to): Exploding pill bugs, talking deer, and a guy named “Donkey Wang.” In the end, Detective Dee becomes a surprisingly affecting tale of a man’s complicated relationship with the politics of his nation, and is absolutely worth the trip to the theater, if you’re lucky enough to live in a city where it’s playing.