Yi boh lai beng duk

Back in the early 90s, I recall widespread concern about incurable diseases such as the Ebola virus, and Hollywood taking the premise and churning out movies such as Outbreak and the such. In Hong Kong cinema, director Herman Yau cemented his cult status for films with excessive graphic depiction of sex and violence with this movie - Ebola Syndrome.

As compared to the other cult hit The Untold Story, you can spot various similarities in terms of presentation style, and certain plot elements and development. Again the lead role, Kai San, is played by Anthony Wong, this time with long frizzy hair, and begins the movie with both sex (with his boss' wife) and violence (yet another gruesome massacre played out in full on screen, coupled with sexual violence). Naturally he becomes a fugitive and escapes to outside Hong Kong - this time to South Africa, and becomes an employee at a local Chinese restaurant.

The similarities do not end there. You just cannot wait for the next dismemberment and the making of the new "char siew bao", now termed African Buns for local flavour. Expect more hard unflinching violence, and this time too with the camera unmoved from the decapitation of animals like chickens and frogs - heart still pumping, and the slicing out of innards, or the chopping off of legs. Sure puts you off your next bowl of frog leg porridge. And serving as another reminder, is not to offend your cook, as he has the power to include unwanted ingredients, including bodily fluids! Rapid fire profane dialogue is a standard, and sometimes comical as the characters rattle off combinations of vulgarities with ease. But just in case you wonder if Ebola Syndrome is The Untold Story rehashed in a different setting, rest assure that only the good gory bits from Untold get squeezed into the first half of Ebola. Unfortunately the second half seemed to want to move away tangentially from its predecessor, and kept its focus on the contact with, and spreading of the disease.

Stemming from Kai San's inability to keep his pants on, he takes advantage of a comatose African tribe woman, who unknowing to him, is a victim of the Ebola virus. With an incredible stroke of luck, he survives the infection and becomes a virus carrier, spreading the disease in South Africa no thanks to his African Buns, and amongst prostitutes when he returns to Hong Kong. The rest of the movie becomes a comedy somewhat with the police attempts to contain the virus as well as to apprehend Kai San. Nothing too fancy in its second half treatment.

One more thing, look out carefully at the cameos and extras!

What can I say about a film which is directed by the director of the most brutal and undescribable Hongkong horror of all time, The Untold Story, and starred by Anthony Wong, who also starred in The Untold Story. These two films are very different, and this, Ebola Syndrome is the funnier/trashier of these two. In other words, a kind of sicko gore film that will never be equalled in Western cinema.

Story tells us the journeys of Kai (Wong) who rapes, kills and f*cks people (and beefs!) and owns a restaurant, too! What a nice cook we got here! He lives in Africa and is hiding from police, who is on his tail for a multi murder he committed in Hong Kong. At one point, he becomes infected with the notorious and deadly Ebola virus and then the "fun" begins..and thus the title.

The whole film is as twisted as possible as we are shown acts of murder, masturbation, rape and cannibalism in safe Hongkong style! There is no point in trying to review this as some kind of a "serious" film because this is pure trash and b-level horror/gore film. The violence is brutal and scenes involving ebola virus are disgusting as our hero infects other people with the disease. At some points the film is so vile and over-the-top that I couldn't do nothing but laugh in amazement. It is also shocking in non-laughing manner but for most of the time, this cannot be taken seriously, although this kind of film is banned in about every country. It is too bad that all versions available (Euro DVD and HK VCD) are censored pretty badly and I've heard that the director has stated that the uncut version doesn't even exist anymore. It would be more than interesting to see the full director's vision of this film!

So this is great experience for trash and sicko cinema lovers, but others stay away! You'll feel nothing but sick if you try to watch this! I think that most of the people who like this (and make these!) are considered seriously ill, but that doesn't worry me, because those people who consider lovers of this kind of cinema sick, understand nothing about marginal and alternative cinema.

If someone expects this to be some over-the-top violence show, a disappointment will follow, because it's not THAT bad. It is pretty sick but not too gory/violent. And keep in mind that the versions out there are censored and are not the director's final cut. Hongkong Laserdisc may be uncut but I really don't know for sure because I haven't ever bought/collected LDs. As I mentioned, HK VCD is cut for sure so it may be the case with that LD, too..

Excellent HK nasty/sicko/comedy(yeah!) but only for the right audience! 8/10 and without a doubt one of its kind.

Herman Yau's "Ebola Syndrome" is a gruesome Hong Kong horror in the tradition of "Bunman:The Untold Story" and "Dr.Lamb".Anthony Wong is incredible as Kai San-he is one of the most depraved characters I have ever seen.Still the tone of the film isn't really disturbing-"Ebola Syndrome" can be very humorous at times.However if you're squeamish don't watch this one-there is torture,rape,dismemberment,masturbation with pork product,cannibalism and plenty of heavy violence on display.The plot is simple:Wong plays a deranged serial killer who flees Hong Kong after committing multiple murders and ends up contracting the Ebola Virus during his brief hideout in Africa.After murdering several people in Africa he returns to Hong Kong with some stolen money to start all over again.But now he is the Ebola carrier and he is spreading deadly virus...Overall,"Ebola Syndrome" doesn't quite live up to "Bunman:The Untold Story",however fans of extreme cinema should be pleased.

This is the type of horror film the world seems to be seeing less and less of nowadays. Pure Evil, Pure Gore, Unrelentless in its delivery and damn entertaining all the way through.

A geeza catches ebola, he's immune to the effects and is just a carrier, he spreads it all over the place. thats is the basic outline of the plot. You need know no more to get the jist of it all.

This is a classy film all the way through, i love everything about it. The deaths are brutal and realistic looking. Its predictable as hell, but not even this can stop it from being a top film.

As a horror, this is almost as good as it can get. 10/10

Hong Kong's extreme Category III rating allows producers and directors to cater to the sickest desires of their audiences by focusing on violence, sex, sexual violence and scenes of depravity normally not found in mainstream cinema. During the 1990s, there was a boom in such productions, with the most popular inevitably starring Anthony Wong as some kind of crazed killer or pervert.

THE EBOLA SYNDROME is one of the best-known of its kind and that's no surprise; this is one hell of a ride of a film, chock-full of bad taste scenes in which the writer tries to go out of his way to offend everybody watching. The protagonist, played by Wong, is a guy who goes around raping women and eventually contracting and spreading the Ebola virus, which leads to much unpleasantness.

From the opening set-piece you know what you're in for with this one: tons of bad language, naked women and gross gore effects. The directors throws in animal dissection, autopsies and all kinds of sickening stuff involving food production that's guaranteed to turn your stomach. Rape and murder are commonplace, and yet at the same time there's daft comedy to offset the darkness. It's all portrayed so over the top and ridiculously that none of it is disturbing.

What surprised me most about THE EBOLA SYNDROME is that it's a well made movie comparable with other Hong Kong films of the 1990s. The technical values are strong and the acting isn't too shabby either; Wong is a commanding actor and you can see why he's enjoyed mainstream as well as cult success. Yes, this is an unpleasant and sometimes childish film in the way it seeks out one depravity after another, but at the same time it's undeniably entertaining and it goes down avenues that Hollywood wouldn't dare. The ending rampage is by far my favourite part of the movie and has to be seen to be believed.