My Rating: ★★★

D.I.E. [古靈精探] aka Death Investigation Extension is a Action, Comedy and Supernatural TV Show that first aired in 2008.

About

A unit of the Hong Kong police force has been set up to address many unsolved cases. One of the detectives has a super power. There are potential romances between officers and having to deal with criminals that could be family members.

Cast

Roger Kwok [郭晉安] as Yue Chi Long
An actor who is signed up with TVB whose career started in in the mid-1990s. We’ve seen him in Flying Tiger Season 3 and a few others.

Sonija Kwok [郭羡妮] as Ying Jing Jing
Her first TV appearance, as far as I can see, was the highly popular “A Step Into The Past” from 2001.

Kenneth Ma [馬國明] as Hugo
Well, he is in just about everything, very popular actor. We recently saw him in The Invisibles, Flying Tiger Season 2, Line Walker The Prelude and many more.

Review

This show was actually quite bonkers with a mix of comedy, drama, supernatural and bad special effects.

There were different stories every few episodes but a couple that continued throughout the series, including romances, ghosts and family.

I guess some of the main character stories did develop over the space of the series, there were some others that just faded into the background.

The supernatural elements of the script required some special effects which were just awful. I think they could have done a better job in post-prodution since they had that capability back then. Maybe they were on a tight budget.

What worked really well was the camera work such as the action shots zooming in quickly and syncing in with the music score. That part was really well done but something we’ve seen in other Hong Kong shows.

The acting was a little over the top but I guess for that show it kind of fitted in. For example, the mother of crime family when in a panic just didn’t come across as real.

It was quite spooky how one would see a box of tissues appear in many scenes, one by the same company who obviously sponsored the show.

The father’s hair in the first half of the series was, I consider, a bit of an error by the make-up department. Turn him upside down and he would make a great mop.

Each episode had a cliff-hanger and that they were well done. The dishy doctor could have had a bigger part, may have attracted a wider audience.

Kenneth Ma looked really young in the show, almost like a teenager at times.

I wasn’t expecting such a dramatic ending to the show, I guess that secured the show for a second season.

The theme music to the show was really well done, something you would singing in your head for days.

Summary

I would rate this 3/5. Maybe it had aged too much over time but it was semi-enjoyable. I’m not sure I could watch the second season.

Where To Watch

I watched this show on Tubi but it seems it has already deleted from the platform. It still exists on an official TVB YouTube channel but without English subtitles.