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Bio Zombie (1998) directed by Wilson Yip.
(MF Title: “Rumble in the food court..”)
Starring Jordan Chan, Sam Lee, Angela Tong Ying-Ying, Yiu-Cheung Lai and Emotion Cheung.
Zombie Film Rating:

Overview: Woody Invincible and Crazy Bee are two unenthusiastic video store employees at the mall. Dividing their time between unsuccessfully trying to make a dishonest buck, and their equally unsuccessful romancing of the local female employees.

Their typical day is about to be interupted by several atypical events. After running down a fleeing government officer, infecting him with a biological weapon and then stuffing him in the trunk of their bosses car they return to the mall. Much to their chagrin the now zombified government officer escapes the trunk and begins visiting zombie vengeance upon shopper and staff member alike.

Summary: The film begins by introducing us to Woody Invincable and Crazy Bee, two underacheiving video store employees who seem to spend the bulk of their time harrassing would be patrons of their store.

Receiving a call from the boss they run off to fetch his car from the mechanic. After pausing to admire one of the mechanics testicles they race back to the New Trends Plaza, stopping only briefly to run over a fleeing military officer.

This officer had, only moments before, been involved in some illicit transaction between assorted shady characters for a substance (concealed in a bottle of juice) that turns the living into flesh hungry zombies (the vegetarian zombies making for a much less entertaining movie). The “demo-zombie” brought along for this transaction breaks loose and begins consuming the participants, precipitating the flight that brings him into fatal contact with Woody and Bee.

With the now deceased (but presumably reanimating) military officer in the trunk of the car Woody and Bee return to the mall, where they resume their efforts to make money in a quick and easy fashion (selling off the dead officers cell phone, mugging one of the beauty shop girls in the womens washroom, you get the idea).

Unbeknownst to them the now undead officer has become bored with his vehicular confinment, and has begun wandering the mall in search of snacks.

What follows is the (all too) familiar exponential growth of the zombies out of sight of the main characters. While Woody and Bee are being interogated by the police for their alleged assault on “sushi boy” the zombies make an appearance quickly eliminating anything vaguely resembling an “authority” figure.

Our heroes team up with some other mall employees as they try to figure out how to survive the zombie menace. While Woody seeks to free his romantic interests from the clutches of her zombie admirer (Nope, not even kidding about that).

In the end love triumphs, but not for the living.

Quotes:

• “You are not qualified to listen to this!”
  - Woody Invincable

Critique: I really enjoyed this film, maybe it was sleep deprivation, maybe it was the paint fumes. Whatever the cause I found myself laughing in the right places, and getting sucked right into the movie. There’s no new ground broken in this film, the zombies are (with the exception of the stalker-ish zombie) standard, the action typical. What made this film enjoyable was the lighthearted approach, this film fails to take itself seriously but still manages to avoid becoming a parody of the genre.

The Final Word: Definately give this one a try, although you may want to make sure the version you track down has an english audio track if subtitles annoy you.

(Special thanks to Unodiablo from the Zombie Squad Forums for his assistance with this review. Thanks man!)

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