The Untold Story

In the early 80s, popular actor Danny Lee (famous for his work in action films) became director and producer of his own films, and by the end of the decade was already a major player in Hong Kong's movie industry. This position allowed him an enormous amount of power during the 90s boom of Hong Kong cinema, and made him the discoverer of famous stars (like Stephen Chow) and producer of a wide array of interesting films by upcoming filmmakers. Among those, Herman Yau's "Baat sin Faan Dim Ji Yan Yuk Cha Siu Baau", or "The Untold Story", is one of the most popular in the Western world, and one of the better known movies of the CAT III rating that was introduced by the Hong Kong government during those years. Suppousedly based on a true crime story, "The Untold Story" is a very powerful film that truly lives to its reputation as one of the most brutal films of Hong Kong cinema.

The plot starts with the discovery of a plastic bag containing the severed hands of a person in a lonely Macao beach. The young and unexperienced police team assigned to the case is clueless as they had never faced something so horrible, but lead by the suave officer Lee (Danny Lee), they find some clues pointing to Wong Chi Hang (Anthony Wong), the owner of the popular Eight Immortals Restaurant. As the cops find out that Wong just bought the place to his former boss, they try to track down the previous owner, but every attempt to find him or his family prove futile. The discovery of Wong's dark past prompts his arrest, but he still refuses to admit having committed the crime. Officer Lee decides to take severe measures, but not even he will be prepared to hear Wong's Untold Story.

Written by Law Kam Fai (author of another famous CAT III film, "Dr. Lamb"), the movie develops as a police procedural movie, detailing the work of the cops to figure out the responsible of the crime; however, two extremely different elements set "The Untold Story" apart from similar stories: the dark and extremely brutal portrayal of the psycho killer, and the odd addition of offbeat comedy thrown in to balance the grittier aspects of the movie. While this strange mixture of genres may sound unappealing (and honestly at first sight looks unappealing too), it surprisingly works within the movie, and gives good balance to the overall darkness of the story. Apropriately, in the end it is the horror element the one that dominates the film in a terrific brutal finale that by now is definitely a classic of 90s CAT III movies.

Famed for being one of the most shocking Asian horror movies, "The Untold Story" is surprisingly not as gory as one would expect with that reputation; however, this is not saying that the film doesn't live to the hype, as it is definitely a shocking experience although for a very different reason. Director Herman Yau cleverly chooses to portray the grotesque details of the crime in a relatively subtle, unseen way; but the way he executes the scenes allow for a far more powerful effect as plays with the imagination making the violence portrayed frighteningly real despite not being too graphic. The raw and gritty style Yau uses for his film (mainly for budgetary reasons) only enhance the realism of the movie, and together with Wong's brilliant performance make a movie very hard to forget.

Definitely one of the elements that really make the difference between "The Untold Story" and similar exploitation movies is the top notch performance of Anthony Wong as the enigmatic Wong Chi Hang. He captures so well the traits of this unbalanced psychotic character that one can't help but believe that the man on screen is truly a demented person. Danny Lee as the Officer in charge of the case offers the balance between the sadistic darkness of Wong and the at times silly comedy of the police team. Lee's smooth and witty character contrasts with the clumsiness and naiveté of the young cops, portrayed effectively although somewhat average by equally young actors. The exception is Emily Kwan, who plays Bo, the only female in the team and therefore the one who has to prove that she is as capable as the guys to do the police work.

"The Untold Story" is often hard to watch, but it's definitely never boring, and while crude, the portrait of sadistic violence it makes of the crime is captivating in a way that few horror movies are. While this is definitely one of the best CAT III movies of its time, it's not without flaws, as the budgetary constrains really took its toll in the movie. Anyways, what most viewers have criticized about "The Untold Story" is the odd mixture of comedy in the movie, as it seems to add an unnecessary source of silliness to an otherwise brutal movie. Personally, I think that, while not exactly subtle, the comedy do adds to the "charm" of the film, and helps to break the tension in a very dark movie. It may not seem appropriate at first sight, but it's not really a terrible flaw as some may have pointed out.

In the realms of the horror genre, Herman Yau's "Baat sin Faan Dim Ji Yan Yuk Cha Siu Baau", is now a classic of Hong Kong cinema, and essential viewing for those interested in the infamous exploitation movies rated as CAT III. It's not a movie for everyone, but if you have an interest for gritty tales of serial killers, "The Untold Story" is a must-see. 8/10

Even though Hong Kong movies are never as good looking or slick made as an Hollywood production, it produced a couple of great little movies. "Baat sin faan dim ji yan yuk cha siu baau" is simple one of those great movies, mostly because of its sick story.

Movies focusing on serial killers are often good and interesting ones to watch, especially when they are done as well as this one. The movie is not really made great by its directing, acting or writing but more due to its violence and graphic straight-forward approach.

The movie features a couple of pretty graphic and sick moments, that makes this movie stand out in its genre. It's one of those movies that got banned in numerous countries at the time of its release and is heavily cut in others. Not that it's the most shocking more around but the movie does have its moments that will make some people's stomach turn.

In the beginning the movie its storytelling doesn't feel balanced out well enough. On the one hand it focus on the movie its killer and on the other on the police investigators. The two don't always mix well and it feels a bit disjointed. This gets better as the movie progresses but it always still remains a problem of the movie. The movie also gets less great toward its ending, when its perhaps starting to drag a bit.

Because the movie picks a more light and comical approach at times, you're able to forgive the movie its rather cheap look and production values. Had the movie been done completely serious the movie would had probably been not as effective, although it of course also prevents this movie from being a classic movie within its genre.

Overall the movie remains a surprisingly good one, despite all of its obvious flaws and 'cheap' Hong Kong style of film-making.

8/10

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This is my first 'Cat III' flick, so while I'm not qualified to compare this to other genre entries; I've heard this is the pick of the bunch, and I wouldn't be surprised to find that is indeed the case. I guess this is the sort of film that people mean when they talk about completely sick Asian cinema, as The Untold Story doesn't exactly hold back and while the plotting is largely uneven and sometimes doesn't flow well; there's buckets of blood on display, and the film always at least has that to fall back on. The film plays out something like a cross between a psycho killer flick and a police drama, as we follow Wong Chi Hang; a man who brutally murdered a family after a card game, and took control of the Eight Immortals Restaurant. Various members of the restaurant staff are going missing, and it's no coincidence that the restaurant happens to serve 'pork bao'. The story really starts when some kids discover a hand on the beach, and following an investigation into the hand's former owner; it comes to light that it once belonged to the mother of the restaurant family...

The film starts off slowly, and I can't say that I was enjoying it too much by the end of the first half. However, things really pick up in the second half and by the end we are treated to what is surely one of the most brutal murder sequences ever committed to screen! There's a distinct element of pitch black humour to the film, and this is shown through the bumbling police officers and even some of the murder scenes themselves. The way that the film is shot is fairly stylish and certain sequences; such as the one that sees the main character welding a huge butcher's knife, are very memorable. The Untold Story does a good job of drawing the audience into the central character's story, and this is why the second half of the film works better than the first. The title of the film comes from the fact that our murderer tries his best not to divulge the story surrounding the murders to the police, and the torturous sequences that see the fuzz trying to get it out of him add nicely to the brutal atmosphere of the film. Overall, this is a great slice of nasty cinema. Since it's one of the better known 'Cat III' films, I guess all the experienced viewers will already have seen it; but if you've never seen a Cat III film, this looks like as good a place as any to start!

Consensus view: ugly, bleak, grueling slasher film about sick restaurant owner in Macau mincing his victims into pork buns, given really strange comedic pizazz by a group of daft incompetent cops on the trail. Smudge of social commentary near the end, when the cops cannot properly solve the case by gathering clues they turn into torturers themselves.

Digging a little deeper, I believe it works the way it does because of the particular way we are situated inside the story: we only spend time with the killer as he maims and mutilates. Our primary focus is on the incompetent investigation, itself a source of ironic amusement exactly because we are two steps ahead; we know exactly what is going on and have to wait for them as they play catch-up. Every dimwitted joke is someone's limbs hacked off down the road.

Our killer is messy and an amateur, the law enforcers perhaps even more. The police captain is always cavorting with hookers. The result is a chaotic universe without moral value or clear demarcations. How better to exemplify a corrupt, absent law than by increasingly depraved violence recast as the darkest of comedies?

'The Untold Story aka Human Meat Roast Pork Buns'

I first had a chance to watch this movie when I was a kid about 13 years of age in my junior high, believe it or not this movie was widely spoken at that time in the place where I live (Medan,Indonesia), of course considering the graphical content and nudity of the movie, I only have the chance to watch it together with several buddies while nobody's attending home. What happened was...one of my mate dispersed halfway the movie, as for me, after watching it, I feel terribly remorse within because it haunted me day after day for long enough than I could remember, especially that Wong figure make me really sick and guts out.

Last Sunday, 24th August 2008, after 15 year I have another chance to watch this movie again. It's much different this time, kinda nostalgic and I found the scenes more bearable compare to watching it in the older day, but still I prepare extra guts and it still portrays a very horrifying and disturbing scenes even compared to modern Hollywood gory/slasher flick like 'Saw' and 'Hostel' alike. So it was fair to say that one should never claim to have watched 'the most' gory or terrifying film in modern cinema before ever taste a chunk of this Hong Kong classic cinematic horror.

I wouldn't go so far to say that this movie is great, but I can point out few points that distinguish 'The Untold Story' from movie alike:

1.The acting of the lead (Anthony Wong) is unbelievable brilliant, as the bun man , only by the evil look of his eyes you could tell how vicious and mean he is. And he really deserved to be the only lead actor from CAT III Hong Kong movie to ever win the best actor category in Hong Kong Film Award history.

2. The dark and merciless scenes contain of extreme graphic violence subject to children, the sadistic method of killing and diabolical suicide attempt, police and cell brutality, etc, all those scenes are somehow cross the line, thank God there's some crunchy humor poured onto the film. Well, some silly humor wouldn't do any harm in such a dark material.

3. The originality of the movie's theme itself has become like a trend-setter at Hong Kong cat III film industry at that time, many of which trailed the very same theme despite of the controversy, and the movie itself later spawned its sequel of The Untold Story II and III respectively, of which none has the quality equal or even close to the original.

4. This is one of the movie despite explaining everything in the title and poster still make you feel like watching it, under the account of curiosity.

As a matter of fact I wouldn't ever recommend such a disturbing movie to anyone, but for those who like to test the limit of tolerance, well this one is surely worth a notice. Strongly not recommended for age below 17, based on what I experienced...