biozombie

Given that Hong Kong has churned out some truly electrifying martial arts, and crime films over the years, I had to get a look at this to see how a Dawn of the Dead ripoff would turn out if they took a stab out of it. The movie is based around two guys called Woody Invincible, and Crazy Bee ( another example of east less than smoothly translating to west). They are two shifty guys who run a VCD store in a big Hong Kong mall. One night, they accidentally run over a guy who is carrying a softdrink bottle full of a bio-weopon produced by the Iraqi's. He gets infected, and not knowing what to do, Woody and Crazy shove him in their car, and go to work. After their shift, they get up to highjinx involving girls, Japanese food, and vomit. Woody also strikes up a relationship with Rose, the most beatiful girl who works there. This really upsets the guy who runs the sushi bar, because he's been trying to win her over with free sushi for weeks. Meanwhile, the infected guy in their car has turned into a zombie, and sets about infecting everyone in the mall, which is now locked up for some reason ( I've heard people rave about Hong Kong shopping, but they don't lock their customers in do they?). The few who aren't infected are forced to fight off the zombie hordes using knives, wrenches,powertools etc. , while they look for a way out.

Although the premise wasn't too original, the delivery was pretty good. Director Wilson Yip gave the film a surreal, videogame quality, which would tend to suggest that he was more influenced by games like Resident Evil, and House of the Dead than Dawn of the Dead. At one stage, we even see computerised looking shots of Woody, Crazy, and the others with status bars beside them. This film also has a number of shots that would make western filmmakers envious. One of these has Woody, and Crazy being interviewed seperately by police in what appears to be a split-screen shot. The camera pans out, and we realise they are merely standing either side of a mirrored hallway corner.

The only downside was that it wasn't very gory for a zombie movie, although compared to other modern efforts like Scream , it's totally bloodsoaked. I also would have liked a little more action. Maybe some more emphasis put on the action sequence in the mall carpark ( a similar sequence was handled a lot more effectively in Demons 2, and gave that movie a real seige-like quality).Some of the jokes, like the one about some guy with huge testicles had me baffled as a western viewer. Still , although any zombie movie has yet to take Dawn of the Dead's place as the greatest, Bio-Zombie is a refreshing addition to the zombie genre, and a lot better than the vast majority of horror movies of the last ten years.