Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 5.0 | 3/32 | Anniversary Film 2/10 | Countries 3/6 | Hong Kong | Decades 1/6 | 90s
Woody and Crazy bootleg VCDs. They sell them their stall in New Trend Plaza Mall. They spend most of their time not selling their wares, instead causing trouble and stealing from other stores in the mall.
Meanwhile, government agents and black market dealers meet in the warehouse district. The dealers have a soft drink capable of turning people into zombies. They showcase its capabilities by showing off a zombie who drank some. The zombie breaks free and kills two agents.
One agent escapes with the soft drink. Woody and Crazy accidentally hit the agent with their car. The agent, barely able to move, crawls for the soda. Woody thinks the agent is thirsty, so he grabs the soda and pours it into the agent’s mouth.
They bring the agent back to the mall but get distracted and play video games. When they remember the guy in their trunk, they return but find the agent missing.
You see where this is going.
The movie has the slacker hangout feel of Mallrats blended with the goofy horror of Charles Band or Peter Jackson. And, of course, being a zombie mall movie, it riffs on Dawn of the Dead.
Still, the film holds a distinct HK aesthetic, whether an accurate portrayal of 1998 or how the movie industry understood it.
The film sets up the two leads as irredeemable assholes who will exploit anyone and trust no one but uses the zombie circumstances to force them into trusting others to survive. It’s not brilliant, but it’s worth knowing because they are intolerable for much of the movie.
While not a great movie, it keeps up the energy and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It warrants a lot of comparisons but ends up being unlike any zombie movie I’ve seen.
** STRAY THOUGHTS / SPOILERS **
- TIL VCDs were more successful in East Asia than VHS because they held up better in extreme temperatures.
- Crazy takes photos using a Game Boy Camera.
- The yellow flip phone looks sick. Why did we get rid of cunty phones?
- When they all team up, each character gets a stat screen.
- They also get video game-style feedback when a key is missing or a weapon needs to be reloaded.
- Crazy wants a photo taken on the Game Boy Camera for his funeral. Woody tries to jump in, but Crazy reminds him that a funeral picture can only be the dead person.