There were times during The Blue Jean Monster where I was reminded of Paul Verhoeven's Robocop (1987): the plot revolves around a policeman, Tsu Hsiang (Fui-On Shing), who, while on the trail of a gang of ruthless armed criminals (similar to Robocop), is crushed by a ton of scrap metal dropped from a crane (which also happens to Robocop in that movie's climax). But that's not the end of Tsu: like Murphy, he is given a new lease of life and incredible powers, only in this case it's after a cat stands on his body and he is struck by lightning!
However, the film is far from a slavish rip-off (as if you hadn't guessed from the 'cat/lightning' plot turn): the opening ten minutes, for example, is Hong Kong comedy at it's most puerile, introducing us to Tsu's wacky ward Power Steering (Wai-Kit Tse), and a group of crazy youths at a burger restaurant, one of whom - pretty teen Gucci (Gloria Yip) - is pivotal to the narrative. This part is about as far removed from Verhoeven's dark social satire as possible, and is extremely hard going.
Then, in an abrupt change of pace and style, the film suddenly turns into a brutal crime story, as the gang of criminals carry out a bank job, blowing away staff and customers at random. In another scene that reminded me of Robocop, one of the robbers blows off a bank worker's hand with a shotgun (Murphy loses his hand in a similar fashion in Verhoeven's movie). Tipped off by Power Steering, Tsu arrives on the scene, and the criminals flee in a van, taking Gucci hostage; a car chase ensues, the bad guys crashing their van at a construction site. Gucci escapes, having grabbed the robber's loot, and Tsu arrives for a shoot-out with the baddies. It's as he's about to arrest the gang that he is crushed, another villain releasing the crane's heavy load.
The criminals leave Tsu for dead, and try to find Gucci. Meanwhile, the cat/lightning thing happens and the cop is brought back to life in time to rescue Gucci from a motorcyclist bad guy. The rest of the film alternates between really daft comedy, as Tsu hides the fact that he is dead from his heavily pregnant wife, and ballistic action as the cop and his family and friends encounter the bad guys, who are looking for their missing holdall full of cash.
The comedy is mostly low-brow and not very funny, but there is the occasional chuckle to be had: Tsu has to recharge himself using a modified flat-iron, which leads to an amusing scene where Power Steering and the cop are both electrocuted, Tsu's wife mistaking the incident as a homosexual act. The most bizarre gag occurs after Tsu's wife hires a sexy lady called Death-rays (played by busty Amy Yip) to take care of her husband's sexual needs: Tsu's appearance scares the woman, and she runs away; after chasing her, Tsu grabs Death-rays' amble bosom a little too firmly, squirting a stream of breast milk into his face. Huh?
The action is far better, and includes well-staged shootouts, vehicular stunts, impressive body burn stunts, and fights using a chainsaw and axes. I would have preferred it if the whole film had been in this vein - pure action and horror, and no humour. As it is, it's reasonably entertaining nonsense with a few genuinely good moments - worth a one-time watch for fans of Asian madness.
5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for Amy Yip.
