Once upon a time, in the $1 bin at a library book sale, I discovered a little volume named Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. A Chinese classic that mixed Confucian ideals with some startlingly modern detective-story tropes, it's often overlooked when compiling lists of Chinese literature for neophytes — which is a shame, because it's a) far shorter than stuff like Three Kingdoms and b) far easier to get into.
Flash forward to today, and what do I find? Tsui Hark directing a movie adaptation.
Well, actually, from what I can tell, it's not an adaptation of the above book, but rather a new story featuring the character of Detective (Judge) Dee, who inspired a whole slew of books by the translator of the above title. They also have Andy Lau in the lead and Sammo Hung doing action choreography, so it sunds like they're going to emphasize swashbuckling and Sherlock Holmes-style "detective work" over plot knots.
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You and your cheap books. I can never find Judge Dee stuff around here. I agree on the good stuff for neophytes -it's Chinese literature that doesn't involve needing to remember hundreds of names to follow the story.
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Amazon has used copies super-cheap, so you can essentially get it for the price of shipping right now. That said, I've also seen it at B&N in the "mythology" section (whaa??!)
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