Bio-Zombie

Bio Zombie (aka."Sang dut sau shut") is one sucessful and pretty zany HK black comedy/horror film. The plot has to do with Crazy Bee and Woody having to own a VCD/DVD store, owned by the greedy Kui and his wife. Their hobbies in the mall (which seems to strangely be their home...) are chasing girls, going to arcades, cause trouble and eat. In the meantime, the government comes up with a sports biological weapon in disguise as a sports drink. The drinks turns people whom drink it into the living dead and the fun starts to begin.

There are also alot of decent special effects and rather different plot twists as well, but just to be nice, I WON'T spoil anything! Plus, Jordan Chan, Sam Lee and Angela Tong are very talented (as well as sexy!) This is one film of such a strange combo of genres that does not dissapoint.

It's been a number of years since I last watched this late 90's Hong Kong horror-comedy from director Wilson Yip; the very same man behind mage-hits SPL and the Ip Man series with Donnie Yen. In only his thrid year as a director, Yip delivers a fun zombie comedy that taps on (then popular) Hong Kong youth culture, as well as pay homage to the infamous Dawn Of The Dead from Romero...

Woody (Jordan Chan) and Bee (Sam Lee) play a couple of small-time triads who run a VCD store in the busy, New Trend shopping arcade. They go about their lives, harassing some female staff at the local beauty parlour, one of which is Angela Tong who they decide to rob in the toilets, and have fun annoying a cell-phone salesman by drooling over his wife and calling him ugly. Of course, its obvious that this lot are going to have to team up when the s**t hits the fan!

Somewhere else, a dodgy deal for a bio-weapon goes wrong. An injured gangster makes a run for it, carrying a dose of the dangerous liquid in a soft drinks bottle, soon getting into an accident that leads him to the two friends. After feeding him the bio-chemical to hydrate him, Woody and Bee bring the man back to New Trend in the boot of his car. Of course, from here, the horror side of the film kicks in. It doesn't take long for the undead to start taking over the mall, with sushi chef Loi (played by Emotion Cheung) becoming one of the first victims. Loi is madly in love with Rolls (Angela Tong) and even in zombie form, keeps her prisoner for as long as he can, providing her with gifts and protecting her from other zombies.

Bio Zombie may often feel slow until the initial zombie attack, throwing its viewers off for a bit before jumping between horror, comedy and drama as if harking back to the crazed Hong Kong films of the eighties. While the make-up can often be crass, the film often comes across as an independent zombie film, reminding me of my own at times - although we most certainly didn't have the budget these guys would have. There is gore and blood, but just not enough, with limbs and heads getting chopped off as the small team of shop keepers try to survive. A lot of this is accompanied by some fun comedy sequences, akin to that of the 80's horror-comedies like Mr. Vampire and Haunted Cop Shop. But as the film rolls on, Bio Zombie takes a more serious tone for its last 20 minutes, leading to an ending that may surprise some viewers - but ultimately, makes sense from the characters perspective. On this Mei Ah release, there is a short alternate ending. They both point to the same thing at the end of the day, but one is based on choice and the other not so much...

Fun, although not without its flaws, Wilson Yip's Bio Zombie is worth a watch for fans of Hong Kong cinema and of the undead. While it may be played for laughs the majority of the time, it does have some nice dramatic moments that are well balanced throughout and makes a great addition to the zombie genre. It has been described by many as Mallrats meets Dawn Of The Dead, but I think it has something a little more than that!

Overall: A little flat in production value compared to today's glossy standards, but Bio Zombie is a lot of fun and entertains!

Should this movie be described as a Hong Kong take on Dawn of the Dead? No. Return of the Living Dead? No, certainly not. Mallrats with zombies? Sounds better.

The point of this movie is not to provide stark raving terror, deep social commentary, or five gallons of blood per second. This movie is fun. Follow the lives of a pair of small-time punks running a VCD shop, the likable Crazy Bee and the incredibly named Woody Invincible, as they try to get their boss's car and end up accidentally unleashing a zombie plague. Oops. But even before the first zombie shows up, the duo has gotten into some amusing scrapes and got out of them with bluster that for once is not unlikable. They may be jerks, but at least their the kind of jerks you can see yourself hanging out with.

When the zombies show up, the movie stays focused on Woody and Bee. It seems so wrong to say that this movie is character driven, but it is. Not it a dramatic sense, but in the sense that the characters and not the zombies are the main focus of the movie. That surprisingly doesn't hurt the film, as the interactions are definetly between our heroic duo and the zombies are generally amusing.

But the movie knows when to get serious. The last ten minutes or so switch from humor to seriousness (save one speech from Bee) suddenly and yet without missing a step. The last ten minutes seem to come from a "real" zombie movie and are filled with emotion and pathos. It's kind of startling, but it also fits.

All in all, I definetly recommend this movie. It is one of my favorites. Just go in expecting humor. Heck, it's best to go into the movie not knowing anything about it.

Well, i'm extremely pleased I saw this film when I had the chance. I managed to see it late one night on 'Film Four Extreme', not knowing what i'd be in for. I was expecting a cheap zombie effort that I would have to force myself to sit through. But I was wrong!

First of all I have not seen the newly 'dubbed' version of this film and do not wish to either. I have seen two different versions which different subtitles. The first was on 'Film four' which seemed to have been translated by someone british, I could tell because most of the slang was british. The other version of subtitiling is from the HK region 0 DVD and NOT the newly release US version of this film which I think has the dubbing. The DVD subtitling isn't great because some of it is translated very poorly, whereas the 'Film four' version of this is grammar perfect.

From the very opening shots of the film I actually found myself laughing! Could this be!? A horror film that is actually truly funny and isn't 'Return of the Living Dead'! Two characters called 'Crazy Bee' and 'Woody Invincible' work at a VCD shop in a neon like indoor mall, and accidently run into this person in their car which is inevitably a zombie. They take the body back to the mall in the trunk of their car only to release that its missing and starting all kinds of trouble in the mall. That's the basic plot from there without giving anything away. But I assure you, you'll find yourself laughing! There are some classic moments in it.

Now, for the Zombie genre horror people out there I still suggest checking this out. As far as I know there are few zombie films out there that seem to be able to work with comedy. A couple that spring to mind are 'Return of the Living Dead' and 'Brain Dead'. Although Bio Zombie may not be as good as either of these in effects, its still an equally great zombie film. There are minimal gore scenes and no truly amazing SFX but it doesn't let it's low budget appereance hurt the film at all. Still there are some great gore scenes, such as the 'tap in the face' where Bee jams a tap pipe into a zombies head and turns on the fawcett and blood comes out the end! Not to mention a scene with a drill in the mouth! There are good points to be had for the true zombie genre horror fan. If you do get the chance to see this on 'Film four' then I suggest you do, because this version of the subtitles are a lot better.

With the two main characters characters named Woody Invincible and Crazy Bee, and the love interest named Rolls... how can a movie fail?

A lovelorn zombie sushi chef, a neglectful husband and a spiteful, yet faithful wife, two bumbling thieves, and a couple of beauty salon workers, Bio Zombie's cast is full of great characters; all that are played convincingly. Combined with a great script, Bio Zombie provides ample entertainment.

A hilarious spin on an age-old premise, Bio-Zombie is a comedy disguised as a zombie movie. Amazing dialog, impractical events, and great lead actors, this movie definitely delivered. The perfect bad horror movie.

7/10