July 13th (1996)

Rating: D

Dir: Wellson Chin
Star: David Wu, Michelle Reis, Dayo Wong, Helena Law Lan

This aggravating little HK feature has the potential to be a spooky little gem, but decides to throw it away with irredeemable blasts of juvenile slapstick that Mel Brooks would reject. The basic premise is X Files – male & female cop investigate a rash of mysterious suicides, with the aid of “Pierre”, an ex-cop sent to the loony bin after his own investigation – and parts of this work very well, with an unsettling edge that keeps the viewer guessing.

But there are just too many sequences which will leave you shaking your head in disbelief; fart jokes and other juvenilia destroy any chance of this working. Wu and Reis are fine as ‘Mulder and Scully’, but this is too much of a mess for anyone to handle. While definitely different, Magic Cop did the occult crime thing a hundred times better.