Judge Dee
A few weeks ago, I came across a book Dix petits démons chinois in the series Les nouvelles enquêtes du Juge Ti (The new cases of Judge Dee) by Frédéric Lenormand. As I highly enjoyed the original Judge Dee series by Robert van Gulik, I bought it. The style of this new book is rather far from the original and the detective plot is rather poor, so I do not think I will buy further books in the series. However, this started me on re-reading van Gulik’s books, which remain as enjoyable as I found them twenty-five years ago… Incidentally, a movie called Detective Dee just came out (in France) a few days ago. It again builds on the same historical Tang dynasty judge, with apparently little connection with the original books.
May 1, 2011 at 12:21 pm
No, I didn’t. I didn’t even know there were books! I heard it’s really good though.
May 1, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Plus, they are completely unrelated with the movie, much more sleuth work than kung-fu fights, and much more rational than supernatural…
May 1, 2011 at 12:12 am
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April 30, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Hey, just to say that I’ve seen the movie, and it’s terrible. The story is over simple, most scenes are just ridiculous (if only because of the bad aesthetic), there’s a lot of fighting but even that is not impressive… I literally fell asleep halfway through the movie. I just don’t understand all the very good reviews.
April 30, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Thanks for saving my time, Pierre! It was offered by the local cinema this afternoon. Have you read the books?