Il monastero della morte

Another person here said that, having read all of the Dee mysteries, he thought this was a bad adaptation.

I very strongly disagree. I have also read them all, and love them all. The film is different because it is a film. But the warmth, the humor, and the clever detecting is the same. I give the books a 10 and I give this film a 10.

This film bears the same resemblance to it's originating books as the Charley Chan film series did to Earl Derr Biggers novels. It's nearly if not actually impossible to get everything into a movie that is in a novel, and when it's a series of novels and short stories, as here, one gets a collective sense of the central characters that no single film can possibly produce. It is true that Judge Dee written doesn't match Judge Dee filmed entirely, but then, neither did Charley Chan. The only thing I ask of a film is that it be well done, and either or both informative or entertaining.

I think this film more than satisfies on all counts.