Shi cheng

A building riddled with a menagerie of working girls, criminals and loners find the corridors of their apartment block infested with zombies.

Oh my have things have progressed since Junk Shiryōgari (2000) and Versus (2000) (certainly in the effects department), Zombie Fight Club (2014) is better than the influx of recent DTV walking dead movies globally produced, in contrast to most Asian dead movies its light on humour, tonally it's reminiscent of The Horde (2009), Rammbock/Berlin Dead (2010) mixed with Joe Chien's own twisted incoherent Zombie 108 (2012).

Chien's zombie offering is packed with action, actually wall to wall bloodshed, excellent make-up effects and an abundance of practical and CGI blood which puts some American modest budget zombie films to shame. It's colour palette is dark, accompanied by a pumping soundtrack, it's undeniably fast paced. Oddly it inexplicably interchanges between English and Mandarin and it's a film of unorthodox two halves with no third act.

When it does slowdown it has a fistful of creepy moments but these are few and far between as buxom beauty Jenny played by Jessica Cambensy witnesses her boyfriend, his crew of rappers and strippers come toe to toe with growing army of zombies. After a flash forward a year after the outbreak Jenny has gone all zombie killer sporting a new hair cut and an even tighter costume (yes there's the shameless objectification of women but no more than The Resident Evil franchise tries to gloss over).

What it lacks in plot it makes up for with its kick-ass female and male characters, soldiers and loads of zombie kills, impalement, bullets and action setups. Yes the characters are at times cartoonish and its gratuitous but it's a solid addition to the Asian live action zombie market, if you're in to it.

Went to see this movie with friend because nothing else is on. In a nutshell, the director took the apartment from Dredd, general atmosphere of George Romero movies, some Asian pop-stars, tossed in a blender, and filmed whatever detritus that came out. Fasten your seat belt and prepare for a long ride, because the prologue lasted for a whole hour before the titular zombie fight club starts.

There are some T&A in there, but not enough to justify the ticket price, and not the ones you went in hoping to see (Jessica C for me). My feeling is that the director is familiar with elements from various zombie movies, yet completely missed that zombie movies are always about the human; zombies are forces of nature that creates the survivalist environment which brings out the cruel and selfish tendency within us. Instead we get characters that are just as bland and dumb as the zombies they are fighting. Zombie Battle Royale would be more fitting title for this movie.

The movie has no idea whether it wants to be an action film, body horror, or slap stick comedy. Switching between all three at will. It has all the subtlety of a getaway BMW that is somehow emplaced inside an apartment unit on the top floor, smashing through multiple concrete walls until it's sailing through open air, crashing to the ground with nary a dent. And yes, that scene is in the movie.

noticed zombie in the title so i had to watch it.

a building riddled with crime.

police on a sketchy mission just shutdown the elevator.

most of the people from the building turned into zombies.

and in the middle of it all is jenny.

she faces the challenge of staying alive.

with danger around every corner and behind every door.

will she make it? or join the rest of the pack.

-------------------------------------------------------.

feels like an action movie with an attempt on horror.

i'm glad they didn't go overboard on the comedy factor.

as for the zombies getting shot and the blood splashing everywhere.

they actually did a nice job on that.

sure can be better but not bad at all!.

all the other graphics are just bad and worse.

some decent acting and some not worth writing home about.

but overall...this still is a great movie.

compared to "rec" i would say about just as bad.

reason...this1 got some bad bad graphics...

rec got screwed by the whole bible thing.

This film essentially begins about 30 minutes prior to a zombie outbreak with three separate groups of people congregating at different levels of a large apartment complex. The first group consists of some kidnappers who are holding a wealthy man hostage pending a ransom. The second involves a rap musician and his followers who are in the process of having an orgy. The third group comprises several law enforcement members who are about to break down the door of a drug lab. The focus then shifts to the second group where a new drug is being introduced which consists of ingredients used to make bath salts. And not only does death quickly follow those who take it, but they are also quickly transformed into raging zombies who subsequently proceed to wreak havoc upon everybody within the apartment complex-to include the other two groups just mentioned. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film had plenty of action and CGI which might appeal to those interested in these specific qualities. It also featured a number of attractive actresses which included Sharon Hsu (as the "female courier"), Una Lu ("Yi-Yi") and Candy Yuen (as the "female prison leader"). Unfortunately, the CGI was rather second-rate, and the constant action hindered the necessary plot and character development. That being said, while it definitely had some potential, it failed to live up to it and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

I gave this movie 3 stars. All 3 were for the hot Asian girls. The story and video game special effects were pretty bad.