Sun faa sau si (1998)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Wilson Yip

Writers:

Matt Chow (writer)
Siu Man Sing (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

11 June 1998 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Plot:

Hong Kong's answer to George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead. A soft drink tainted with bio-chemicals has the power to turn people into flesh-eating zombies...

Plot Keywords:

Mall | Soft Drink | Hack Saw | Self Sacrifice | Slap In The Face

Cast

Jordan Chan	...	Woody Invincible (as Siu Chun Chan)
Emotion Cheung	...	Loi (as Kam Ching Cheung)
Sam Lee	...	Crazy Bee (as Chan Sum Lee)
Yiu-Cheung Lai	...	Kui (as Yiu Cheung Lai)
Angela Tong Ying-Ying	...	Rolls (as Angela Tong)
Suk Yin Lai	...	Jelly
Tat-Wah Lok	...	Military Officer (as Tat Wah Lok)
Frankie Chan	...	Ox
Tak Chi Tam	...	Policeman #3001
Chi Chuen Chan	...	Policeman #9466
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bob Bobson	...	VCD Nerd (voice: English version)
Pou-Soi Cheang	...	Automobile Repairman
Francis Cherry	...	Man A (voice: English version)
Siu-Lung Ching	...	Chan Kam-Shing
Matt Chow	...	Shing's Assistant
Dorothy Elias-Fahn	...	Mrs. Kui / TV Announcer / Cindy (voice: English version) (as Dorothy Melendrez)
Richard Epcar	...	Ox (voice: English version) (as Richard George)
Tara Jayne	...	Jelly (voice: English version)
Steve Kramer	...	Yung / Zombies (voice: English version)
Wendee Lee	...	Rolls (voice: English version)
Chi On Leung	...	Automobile Repairman
Dave Mallow	...	Loi (voice: English version)
Matt K. Miller	...	Kui (voice: English version)
Tony Pope	...	Boss / Sushi Chef / Movie Actor 1 / Zombies (voice: English version) (as Anthony Mozdy)
Derek Stephen Prince	...	Crazy Bee (voice: English version) (as David Umansky)
Donovan Ross	...	Cop A (voice: English version)
Doug Stone	...	Cop B / Sai Fai / Movie Actor 2 / Zombies (voice: English version)
Terrence Stone	...	Garage Mechanic / Iraqi / Motorcycle Cop / Zombies (voice: English version)
Suk Mooi Tam	...	Mrs. Kui
Kirk Thornton	...	Woody Invincible (voice: English version) (as Sparky Thornton)
Reiko Takagi	...	Jelly (Roll's friend) (uncredited)

Directed by
Wilson Yip

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Matt Chow		writer
Siu Man Sing		writer
Wilson Yip		writer

Produced by
Joe Ma	....	producer

Original Music by
Peter Kam

Cinematography by
Kwok-Man Keung

Film Editing by
Ka-Fai Cheung

Art Direction by
Stanley Cheung

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gary Mak	....	assistant director

Production Companies

• Brilliant Idea Group (BIG)

Distributors

• Tokyo Shock (2001) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Bio-Zombie (Hong Kong: English title)
Sang dut sau shut (Hong Kong: Cantonese title) (Hakka dialect title)
Sheng hua shou shi (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIB | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario)

Company:

Brilliant Idea Group (BIG)

Movie Connections:

References Mallrats (1995)

Too much dreadful comedy; not enough horror.

How much you enjoy the whole Bio--Zombie experience will depend a lot on how you fare in general with Hong Kong comedy, since there is as much, if not more, silliness in this film as there is splatter. Personally, I find the Asian sense of humour rather hard to get to grips with: there's way too much facial mugging and silly slapstick for my liking. And with this film featuring plenty of both, and also starring Sam Lee, one performer guaranteed to get on my nerves (there's just something about his face that annoys me), I found myself growing tired of proceedings pretty quickly.

Lee plays Crazy Bee, a no-good slacker who, along with his equally worthless pal Woody Invincible (Jordan Chan) runs a VCD shop in a mall; when the guys aren't ripping off their customers with dodgy pirated copies of Stephen Chow movies, they're cruising the mall looking for hot chicks and ways to make easy money.

Their carefree way of life comes to an end, however, when the mall becomes the centre of a zombie outbreak, and making a fast buck and scoring with women come second to avoiding being eaten by the undead.

Those viewers looking for a completely insane piece of Hong Kong horror will probably be fairly disappointed by Bio-Zombie: the first half of the film features next to no zombie action, preferring to concentrate on following our unlikeable heroes as they wander the mall, argue with sexist shop owner Kui (Yiu Cheung Lai), and try to win the affection of hot-pants wearing sexpot Rolls (the lovely Angela Tong); and the second half, in which the walking dead finally begin to wreak havoc, lacks the sense of outrageousness that can be found in so many other HK films.

Towards the end of Bio-Zombie, things start to get a little better as the few survivors fight a bloody (well, slightly bloody) battle against an ever growing number of flesh-eaters, but it all arrives too late in the day to rescue the film. Even a delightfully downbeat ending did little to change my overall opinion of the film: 5 out of 10—decidedly average!