Woody Invincible (Jordan Chan) and Crazy Bee (Sam Lee) are two losers
who would give Beavis and Butthead a run for their money. They run a
bootleg DVD shop in a mall and spend their days scamming, robbing,
mooching, bullying, and harassing both customers and their fellow mall
workers alike. They’re terrible dudes, but when a biological weapon that
turns people into zombies is unleashed in their little corner of the
world, they become unlikely heroes. Sort of.
Director Wilson Yip has had quite an interesting career since
Bio-Zombie (1998). He has gone the action movie route and directed the
wildly successful Ip Man (2008) and it’s three sequels. At the time of
this review, he’s in the pre-production stages on a kung-fu zombie film.
You know I will watch the heck out of that. Also, I’m morbidly curious
to see his 2011 remake of A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), which I can’t
imagine being very good. If I’m wrong about that, I will eat some finger
sushi. Anyway, back to Bio-Zombie.
Good old Sam Lee is a riot in this movie. I’m a big fan of another
horror comedy he starred in called The Stewardess (2002). It’s zanier
than Bio-Zombie and is worth seeking out for some silly and just plain
wrong insanity. Lee’s pairing with Jordan Chan is truly inspired as the
two have a brilliant chemistry. They’re slime, but they’re also sweet.
And who doesn’t love movies about sweet slime? I really like the super
cute and funny Angela Ying-Ying Tong as a beautician named Rolls(?),
even when she pukes on Woody’s shirt. He still wants to kiss her shortly
afterwards! You know what? He’s a good guy.
It feels so good to be transported back to the days when I first
discovered the magic and the madness of Hong Kong horror movies. My
brain was hungry for the extreme and wide open for the weird. While not
as totally unhinged or perverse as films like The Eternal Evil of Asia
(1995), Wicked City (1992), or a dozen other key titles that I
discovered in the early 2000s, Bio-Zombie has its own unpredictable
energy and kooky sensibility. I will confess that nostalgia plays a big
part in why I enjoy this one so much, but you’re gonna dig it.
If you’re into Hong Kong horror or even mildly curious about it,
Bio-Zombie is a must see. The kinetic camerawork, physical comedy, goofy
energy of the cast, tacky colors of the shopping mall setting, and the
zombie action are quite a satisfying combination. All of the usual
tropes are covered along the way, but somehow Yip’s film still feels as
fresh as it did the first time I saw it all those years ago. Dawn of the
Dead? More like Dawn of the Dumb! Amirite?!