Death may be a fatal bitch, but it can’t keep a good cop down. As RoboCop (1987) so memorably showed us, his oath to protect and to serve will bring him back to life. The Blue Jean Monster is a wacky Hong Kong interpretation of what RoboCop would be like if it was hornier, grosser, and also more of a comedy. And while Paul Verhoeven’s Tin Man could just play cops and robbers with the guys in a macho 80s sort of way, our hero is not only a serious cop, but also a bumbling husband and a soon-to-be father. He is killed in the line of duty and when he awakes, he is more dead than alive. Fortunately he soon realizes that he needs periodic jolts of electricity to keep himself going. In his second feature, exploitation maverick Ivan Lai spins a wild roulette of cheap thrills and attractions. The usual copaganda plays second fiddle here and the main focus is on a relationship melodrama that would make the eyes of Woman‘s Weekly readers pop out of their sockets. To the further delight of shockproof aficionados the film also serves up a few absurd gore effects and unexpectedly impressive action sequences. But the main attraction are the silly jokes based on the zombified hero’s newly acquired abilities, sexual innuendos straight out of mainstream lifestyle comedies, and random WTF moments rooted in local mysticism – such as the idea that a stray pregnant cat can bring a dead cop back to life.
