Khun krabii hiiroh

Sheer unadulterated genius. SARS WARS is a gut-wrenchingly funny, utterly deranged, deliriously original, absurdist zom-com from Thailand.

A team of thugs kidnap pretty schoolgirl Liu and hold her hostage in an apartment block. Little do they know, a zombie outbreak is taking place in the very same apartment, a giant snake is on the loose, and the government have set a timer to blow up the building to contain the outbreak. Think that sounds crazy? We haven't met the good guys yet: Khun Khrabii, a stoic hero sent to rescue Liu, his master Thep, a balding lecher with a battery-powered light sabre, and sexy scientist Dr. Diana, creator of an antiviral shot that has a 25 in 26 chance of accidentally making the patient's head explode. And then there's the bad guys...

Director Taweewat Wantha and his team of writers have crafted something akin to the fevered imagination of Peter Jackson's BRAINDEAD, combined with the wild "mo-lei-tau" surreal/spoof humour of Hong Kong's Stephen Chow. The actual zombie and horror-themed content is surprisingly well realised, with excellent make-up effects, some great CGI sequences, and a real sense of tension; but its in the ridiculous send-ups of everything from Japanimation to John Woo to Star Wars to The Crying Game that the movie really takes off.

Thoroughly self-aware, characters constantly make references to the film's attempts to "make money, not win awards": a little unfair, because there is far more craft and ability on view in this film than in a hundred Hollywood blockbusters put together. Certainly none of the recent crop of zombie films pouring out of Hollywood come close. Even Stephen Chow, the acknowledged king of this style of comedy, should feel threatened: this is a better film than KUNG FU HUSTLE, and is possibly even better than SHAOLIN SOCCER too.

A Zombie infection spreads due to a mutated version of Sars and a group of kidnappers, health agents and a sword wielding hero are trapped in a building by the government of Thailand to contain the infection.

Firstly the zombie action is generally pretty good and gory. The film moves pretty quickly to the point where guys with guns and zombies are having it out with each other. The budget must have been decent because there's no shortage of blood, body parts and exploding heads. There are a couple of zombie variations I wont spoil that are done in cgi though that let things down a bit as the cgi is pretty much on the same level as something you'd expect in Ali McBeal.

The major problem though with Sars Wars is the writing is bad. Really really bad. The comedy in Sars Wars is a horrible mishmash of parody, self mockery and 4th wall breaking. Also there isn't a single original element in this film. I mean every zombie movie rips off Dawn of the Dead but... Wild Zero? Anaconda?

Anyway If you are zombie movie fan the action is there and you'll have some fun in trying to spot every reference but you'll have a hard time overlooking the terrible humor.

Thai comedy can be painfully funny. There is often a sense that anything goes so long as it gets a laugh, the result is wild crazy out of left field quality that is totally endearing. A perfect example of this is this movie.

The plot has a mutation of the Sars virus that turns people into flesh eating zombies getting loose in an apartment complex in Bangkok. The zombies present complications for a kidnapped girl and her rescuers who are trying to flee the building.

Bloody, over the top and very silly this is the sort of knowing comedy that more often than not fails to work in other films. Here the balance between blood and laughs if finely balanced, or at least piled on so thick that there is enough good stuff with the bad that you can't help but find something to laugh at. From references to the George Romero zombie films, Star Wars to martial arts spectaculars and Italian horror films this is a movie that steals from the best and puts it all together into a gumbo of entertaining proportions.

Its not perfect, there's often too much going on, and the filmmakers don't always feel the need to have the film make sense, but its an enjoyable romp for those who can take the blood and body parts.

I saw the preview of this film on a Hong Kong film I rented, and thought it looked fantastic. Insane superheroes, zombies, giant snakes, what could be better. Unfortunately, when I was finally able to track the film down, it turned out to be something of a disappointment, as almost all of the funniest parts were in the trailer.

The main issue is that there are far too few funny moments to justify a ninety-five minute movie. Most of the real laughs come on the all too rare occasions when they break the fourth wall. Many of the other jokes are spoofs of eight or nine year old movies that now come across as dated. The action / horror scenes are nowhere near scary enough, (and have too bad special effects) to stand by themselves. Virtually the only reason to actually rent the film is for the attractive Thai actresses.

Well this is no "Dead Alive" (aka "Braindead") or "Shaun of the Dead", but it is a rather good attempt at a zombie comedy from Thailand. "Sars Wars: Bangkok Zombie Crisis" goes a step or two too far into the extreme where they pass comedy and drops into downright stupidity at times. Which is a shame, because those moments really deliver a hard blow to the overall enjoyment of the movie.

Funny, I never knew that SARS turned people into zombies, but I guess it did in Thailand...

The story is about a bug escaping from Africa and making its way all the way to Thailand where it delivers a fatal bite to a guy and a zombie outbreak spreads rampart in an apartment building. In this building Khun Krabii is out to rescue Liu, the daughter of a rich man, while Master Thep has managed to sneak in there disguised as a member of the task force.

The characters in the movie are colorful and funny, and they are well brought to life on the screen by the actors and actresses hired to play them. The dialogue in the movie is funny as well and it is full of self-irony and one-liners. Which just adds to the enjoyment of this over-the-top zombie comedy.

As for the zombies in the movie, well then they were actually nicely made, although I didn't understand the reason for their vampiric fangs. That was just odd. As this is a comedy, don't except too much gore and mayhem. There is a little bit in the movie, just enough to make it clear that this is a zombie movie and enough to make it funny.

Vibrant characters, a fast-paced story, good effects and an overall crazy mood makes for "Sars Wars: Bangkok Zombie Crisis" to be enjoyable and fun to watch.