Zumbiologia: Aproveite Essa Noite

I happened to come across this movie by sheer random luck, and being the zombie afficionado that I am, of course I had to watch it. Even more so, especially since this combined two of my favorite things, and that being Hong Kong cinema and zombies.

However, the end result that is "Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight" (aka "Gam man da song si") was a bit too much for the most parts. Why? Well, because director Alan Lo took the movie out to some far extremes, where it just stopped being funny and became sort of ridiculous.

I am sure that this is based on some kind of cartoon or comic book, but I am not familiar with it.

The special effects in the movie were adequate. But with the storyline being just a little too far out there, then it wasn't a particularly outstanding zombie movie experience.

The acting in the movie was quite good though.

All in all, not an overly impressive foray into the zombie genre for Hong Kong, and this is definitely not the type of movie that you'll watch more than once.

The title of this zombie horror flick makes people guffaw. Why "Enjoy Yourself Tonight" when there are undead corpses running after you? Or does the enjoyment belong to the zombies? Something about the title tells us that the movie has the potential to be a cult classic with out of this world characters and crazy sequences that will be long remembered in the history of Hong Kongcinema.

Indeed there are out of this world characters: watch out for a giant stuffed chicken that – gasp - may just be a figment of imagination leading to the fact that the whole story is nothing but an episode happening inside the protagonist's head. How trippy is that! Does this mean that this 107 minute movie is an existentialist piece of work that is deeper than what it appears to be?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Alan Lo makes his directorial feature length debut with a screenplay based on a popular novel and his own 2012 short film Zombie Guillotines (search for it online).

After taking home the Best Supporting Actor and Best New Performer prizes at the 35th Hong Kong Film Awards and the Best Supporting Actor accolade at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards for his memorable performance in Port of Call (2015), Michael Ning plays a young man who believes that he is a world saving superhero. He is joined by an equally eccentric friend played by Louis Cheng (Line Walker), and together, the duo battles zombies after an unexpected outbreak happens in the city.

In the mix is a Cantonese opera singer (Carrie Ng), a father who suddenly shows up after spending 15 years in prison (Alex Man) and a paranormal nerd who happens to be really cute (Cherry Ngan).

World War Z (2013) and Train to Busan (2016) this is not. Just when you thought it will be a straightforward chase and run zombie flick that you can enjoy without much thinking, the last bit of the movie throws things off balance.

First, there are those ridiculous exploding eggs that reduce human heads into skulls while leaving the bodies intact. Yup, you read correctly – exploding eggs. The somewhat hilarious weapons of choice were novel for a while, before you realise the good guys are just dodging from these eggs shooting out of nowhere. Then comes the giant stuffed chicken. You will giggle at the absurdity of the setup, before realising that the filmmakers are using it to explore teen angst. We are not sure how all these exactly add up.

The best parts of the movie are helmed by Ng and Man, two veteran actors older viewers would find familiar. Ng plays a cripple, and Man (who has put on quite a bit of weight since we saw him on local TV series Golden Pillow and Brave New World) plays the man responsible for that unfortunate accident. The two effortlessly play out the chemistry between the two characters, proving that the older generation of actors still have what it takes to command the screen.

But for whatever reason I noticed it on Tubi and thought, why not? It turned out to be a fun, weird little film that has a few good chuckles, a decent enough plot, and enough action to keep you entertained throughout

"Gam man da song si" (2017), a.k.a. "Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight", is an unfunny and messy zombie movie. The awful screenplay is associated to terrible performances and stupid story of a zombie outbreak in Hong Kong caused by a ridiculous chicken-like monster; therefore, the viewer wastes 1:45 minutes running time watching a movie that has no sense and no ending. It is neither horror, nor comedy, only an absurd story of two clumsy "heros". I do not know whether the sense of humor of our fellow viewers from Eastern us different, but it is impossible to laugh at any scene. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Zumbiologia: Aproveite Esta Noite" ("Zombiology: Enjoy This Night")

Trying to grow up in life, a pair of slacker friends are forced to put away their fantasy life when a strange zombie outbreak arrives in their small town and brings them to the realization that they're going to have to rely on their former lifestyle in order to save their friends.

This here was quite the troubling if still enjoyable effort. One of the more engaging and enjoyable parts here is the fact that this one manages to display a great sense of humor about itself even in the midst of the melodrama. From the start, we're given idea of the kind of film this wants to be with an anime opening featuring the two tearing through hordes of zombies featuring homemade weapons before fighting a giant man-sized chicken monster, and finally that continues nicely with the rather fun anime style in the finale which is even bigger and bolder. This level is goofiness is continued with their childish love of fantasy and superheroes, ranging from dressing up in costumes to role-playing and wearing outfits to children's parties and it gives the film some solid laughs. This indeed does lead into the action which is a lot of fun, as their encounters with the zombie hordes running loose in the city generates scenes like them running away from the hordes in the mall, a great battle with the creatures attempting to break into the barricaded compound and finally the big encounter down in the tunnels where the group manages to utilize the highly impressive and unique homemade weapons that adds a lot to this one by giving it some great action with those tools heavily displayed in the scene. Alongside the strong make-up work on the creatures, these here hold this one up over it's few flaws. The biggest issue here is the fact that the film never seems to know what to do with itself in regards to its human drama. This tries a familiar approach with a troubled father/child relationship, but here it feels more like a retread aping the success of others. The relationship between the father and his son simply doesn't have the same energy here due to the father actually trying to reconnect to the complete refusal of the child such that it simply comes off as being stubborn on his part. Likewise, that plays havoc with the film's pacing since the action scenes with the zombies are fast and frantic and they come off rather enjoyable with a lot to like. However, the film stops to a halt when they shift focus to the family dynamics so that at times it's possible to even forget a zombie apocalypse is running wild outside if it weren't for the mentions about not going outside and at times it feels somewhat dull due to this focusing not on the zombies but rather on this drama set-up. These here are what holds it back slightly.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.