Call of the Undead (2012)

A virus gets loose in Taipei. Army and SWAT teams oversee evacuation but in Ximending the gangs don't want the police. They attack the military but when both find themselves under attack by... See full summary »

Director:

Joe Chien

Writer:

Joe Chien (screenplay)

Stars:

Morris Hsiang Jung, Yvonne Yao, Sona Eyambe

Cast

Credited cast:
Morris Hsiang Jung	...	Gangster Boss (as Morris Rong)
Yvonne Yao	...	Linda
Sona Eyambe	...	Running Foreigner #1
Josh-Hiyakawa Wilson	...	Running Foreigner #2 (as Josh Wilson)
Jack Kao	...	Swat Commander
Tai-Bo	...	Swat Captain
Yukiya Oonishi	...	Japanese Serial Killer (as Gpr Yukiya)
Ching-Hsuan Wei	...	Japan Serial killer's girlfriend
Karen Shih	...	Boss' wife
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jerry Chang	...	Swat
Jia-Hui Chen	...	Mother in Theatre
Wells Chen	...	Swat
Zhi-Yuan Chen	...	Swat
Jen Hao Chien	...	Pervert (as Joe Chien)
Hsin-Yi Chou	...	Imprisoned girl

Storyline

A virus gets loose in Taipei. Army and SWAT teams oversee evacuation but in Ximending the gangs don't want the police. They attack the military but when both find themselves under attack by zombies there is an alliance as they try and escape.

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Plot Keywords:

virus | zombie | 

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Taiwan's first zombie movie.

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Alternate Versions

Hong Kong version was cut for violence to secure a Cat. III rating. This version was also licensed to other countries, e.g. Germany.

User Reviews

And now Taiwan is on the zombie world map...

Well I must say that I was also riding along on the hype-wave about this being Taiwan's first zombie movie, so I had put up some big hopes and expectations for the movie, especially as I was really surprised by "Juan of the Dead" ("Juan de los Muertos") from Cuba. So these movies just go to prove that you don't need a massive backing up from Hollywood in order to make a good zombie movie.

And now having seen "Z108" I will say that I wasn't surprised, and I think that they actually managed to pull it off nicely enough. Sure there were some mistakes here and there, but in overall, I think that Joe Chein managed to make an impressive movie, so Taiwan can now be ticked off on the zombie world map.

The story in "Z108" is about a scientist who had discovered a new gene, but the gene caused unforeseen changes and mutations. With a couple of disasters striking his life, the material gets unleashed upon a part of Taipei, and we find ourselves along with a SWAT group, as they strike down upon the infected area. But in the middle of the chaos is a local gang, totally unaware of the chaos that is unfolding around them. The two groups, SWAT and gang members, have to unite and put aside their differences in order to overcome the common threat of the ravenous zombies.

Yeah, the storyline itself was fairly average for a zombie movie, and it wasn't really anything that you hadn't seen before in other movies of this genre. But still, it was entertaining enough.

The zombie make-up and effects were actually quite good, although it wasn't as gore-filled as some of the Western or Japanese zombie movies can be. But there was a decent enough amount of blood and mayhem, and I was kept entertained by it, though I could have wished for a bit more.

As for the acting, well I think that people were doing good enough jobs with their roles. It wasn't really anything outstanding or overly impressive, but it was above low-budget standards. And I wasn't familiar with anyone in the movie, as I haven't really had much chance to watch Taiwanese movies in general, so it was nice to see a movie with all new faces and not have any prior idea of their acting and previous characters associated with their faces.

There were a couple of things that didn't fall into my personal liking in this movie. The first was the speed of which people turned into zombies, it took less than a couple of minutes; but to make matters worse, then for some reason, newly deceased people that came back as zombies had decaying and mangled faces, even though prior to dying their faces were intact. That was just a tad too stupid. The second thing was the rip off of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with the human flesh-leathery facial mask that the 'pervert' was wearing, it was so unnecessary, and it really brought the movie down a bit in originality. And finally I wasn't overly impressed with the death metal music in the movie. Yeah, I listen to metal myself every day, and nothing much aside from metal, but the metal music in this movie was so misplaced and out of touch with the rest of the movie, plus it just wasn't that great to listen to anyway.

Aside from these small irritations, then "Z108" was actually a good movie in itself, and a well worthy addition to the DVD collection of any zombie aficionado. And for it being Taiwan's first zombie movie, then way to go! Thumbs up.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin English Japanese

Release Date:

29 September 2012 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Call of the Undead

Filming Locations:

Taiwan

Box Office

Budget:

TWD3,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$49,219

Company Credits

Production Co:

Heyshine International Co.

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Cinesound

Color:

Color (HD) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1