ZOMBIOLOGY: ENJOY YOURSELF TONIGHT (2017 - Chinese)

Studio:       Dread Central Presents
Director:    Alan Lo
Writer:       He Liang Yu, Nick Cheuk, Ng Siu Lun, Pang Chi Hoi, Chan Wai Sing
Producer:  Clement Cheng, Angus Chan
Stars:     Michael Ning, Louis Cheung, Venus Wong, Cherry Ngan, Alex Man, Carrie Ng, Chu Pak Him, Chu Pak Hong, Yeung Wai Lun, Chris Chan, Rosa Maria Velasco

Review Score:

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Summary:

Two friends live out their superhero fantasy when a zombie outbreak threatens their adoptive family and celebrity idol.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

A supernatural entity in the form of a box-shaped chicken mascot kills a sports arena’s security guard.

Lone Ngau and his orphaned best friend Yeung fashion themselves after the Double Dragons of Heaven and Earth, invincible superheroes who protect people from monsters in a popular anime. In reality, Lone and Yeung live with Lone’s godmother Shan Yip and Shan’s niece Yit, whom Yeung has a crush on.

After serving a 10-year sentence, Lone’s father Wing is released from prison. Wing goes to collect a debt from Broketooth Bill, but learns from Bill’s mother that Bill died two years earlier.

A flashback reveals that to pay for Lone’s medical bills 15 years ago, Wing took the fall for a car accident that crippled Shan and killed Shan’s brother. Since the incident, Shan has lived as a shut-in devoted fully to the Cantonese Opera Society. Shan still lives in the opera troupe’s building where she taught Lone and Yeung to become prop-makers and continues teaching young students, although Shan’s extended family is in the process of moving out.

Wing comes to see Shan. Desperate to repay his debt to her, Wing offers Shan a machete to use for chopping him up. Yit takes the blade, but tells Wing they are even. Over Wing’s exclamations of wanting to make things right, Lone angrily kicks his father out of the building.

While recording Lone and Yeung talking about themselves, specifically Lone’s feelings about his father, Yit mentions that she is a paranormal enthusiast who belongs to the Special Abnormal Activities Squad (S.A.A.S.). Yit shows off her negative energy meter for reading supernatural activity.

Wah, one of Shan’s disrespectful students, knocks into Lone and puts pushpins into Lone’s hand as a mean-spirited prank.

Real estate agents the Gam brothers inquire about buying Shan’s building. Shan explains she already signed papers and will be moving elsewhere soon.

Egg, a deliveryman with a crush on Shan, makes his 4,998th food delivery to Shan. Egg is disheartened to learn Shan is moving.

While demonstrating their supposed superpowers to impress Yit, Lone and Yeung are nearly hit by a car. Lone later suggests to Yeung that they should give up their Double Dragons fantasy.

A boxer at the sports arena encounters the security guard from earlier, who is now a zombie.

Yit, Lone, and Yeung run into Lone’s ex-girlfriend Liz at the arcade where Lone and Yeung work as costumed panda mascots. Although Liz’s two-year-old son Michael looks just like him, Liz reminds Lone that they broke up six years ago.

After she sends them an unusual video she recorded, the SAAS texts Yit with a warning that abnormal activity was detected.

Wing returns to Shan to ask what he can do to repay his debt. Egg makes his 4,999th food delivery. Wing refuses to leave without making amends. During a heated confrontation over her brother’s death, Shan reveals that she became a shut-in to punish herself. Declaring that he only wants to bring her comfort, Wing picks up Shan and carries her outside.

Lone and Yeung see Wah’s parents having a birthday party for the boy in the arcade. Wah becomes a zombie. Wah kills his mother and father before attacking Lone and Yeung. Lone and Yeung collect Yit and flee the arcade.

Wing takes Shan into the city to show her the sights. Neither of them notices the zombie outbreak beginning to spread.

Yeung flees after grabbing Yit’s camera. Lone goes after him. The Gam brothers and other real estate agents swarm Yit while zombies begin overrunning the streets.

Shan calls Lone to tell him that she and Wing are lost in Sai Wan. Lone advises Shan to find a safe place to hide.

Lone concludes that zombies have overtaken Hong Kong Island and the Double Dragons must save the world. Lone and Yeung recover a pickup truck. Driving past zombie hordes along the way, Lone and Yeung make it to Sai Wan to rescue Shan and Wing.

The chicken mascot oversees a collection of sentient eggs used as projectile weapons. One of the eggs decapitates a woman and melts the flesh from her skull. Zombie hordes continue growing.

Lone and Yeung get Shan and Wing back to Shan’s building. They also allow the Gam brothers to seek shelter inside. Lone reluctantly allows his handyman father to help fortify the doors and windows.

Suddenly realizing they left Yit behind, Lone and Yeung return to the streets to find her as their superhero alter egos. Lone finds his celebrity idol Shuen, a martial artist, on the ground in a wedding dress. Lone and Yeung rescue Shuen from a zombie. Yeung fears Yit died when he discovers her negative energy meter in the zombie’s possession.

Back at the opera house, Wing watches Yit’s video that reveals Lone’s contempt for him. Lone and Yeung return with Shuen.

Shuen has a breakdown after revealing that her fiancée left her at the altar. Lone relates to Shuen by discussing his own failed relationship with Liz.

Lone and Wing share a brief bonding moment. Wing reveals that he was bitten and will become a zombie soon. Shuen goes along with Lone’s lie that they are getting married in order to make Wing feel better about his son’s future in the face of death.

One of the Gam brothers transforms into a zombie and attacks. Having also been previously bitten, Egg arrives at the building and protects Shan. As everyone battles each other, Shuen breaks the zombie Gam’s neck with a karate kick. Shuen knocks the other Gam brother unconscious.

Despite turning undead, Egg completes his 5,000th delivery to Shan. Shan tearfully eats the food that Egg cut into heart shapes. Egg then kills himself with a pen.

A projectile egg suddenly decapitates Shan just as she and Wing begin reconciling over a song. Another egg kills the second Gam brother. Additional eggs shooting in through the windows force the remaining survivors to flee.

Feeling himself changing, Wing locks himself in a separate room. Through the door’s window, Wing tells Lone to save his best friend and future wife. Before he can sacrifice himself to destroy an army of eggs, an egg decapitates Wing. Another egg blows up a propane tank that explodes Wing’s body.

Yit returns. Yeung gives her the Yip family wand that Shan passed him earlier. Lone, Yeung, Yit, and Shuen escape to a bowling alley, although they are soon chased out by zombies. Yit reveals that her energy meter is also a weapon, which she uses to hold off the zombies so the other three can escape.

Lone, Yeung, and Shuen fight zombies in an underground tunnel while trying to make their way to a pier to meet Yit. Lone locks a gate to separate himself from Yeung and Shuen. Lone reveals that he was bitten in the fray and plans to face the chicken mascot alone so that Yeung and Shuen can escape.

Lone confronts the chicken mascot in the tunnel. From the other direction, Yeung and Shuen, having been turned undead, lead a zombie horde toward Lone. Dying, Lone asks the chicken how he can save his friends. The chicken removes his costume to reveal he is Lone’s doppelganger. The doppelganger taunts Lone over his lifetime of failure. Lone eventually summons the strength to fight back. Lone kills himself to transform into Heaven Dragon, and defeats the chicken inside an anime fantasy. Lone concludes that the courage to face himself gave him the ability to be a superhero.

Yit later inspects the tunnel alone as an SAAS agent. Yit discovers a coffin-like box that begins rattling.

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Review:

Japan’s genre oddities are continually seeing considerable competition from Asian neighbors for a piece of the manga-infused midnight movie mania market.  China’s “Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight” may not rival the heartfelt sentimentality of “Assassination Classroom” (review here) or the outrageous insanity of “Meatball Machine Kodoku” (review here).  But its middle ground of bittersweet family melodrama mixed with zany zombie action makes for a film whose fun comes from unusually entertaining eccentricity.

Put your umbrellas up for a heavy downpour of detailed exposition before momentum can reach top speed.  “Zombiology” starts by pitting a stadium security guard against a supernaturally powered something or other in a chicken mascot costume.  Don’t scratch your scalp yet.  The setup switches quickly to an anime introduction for Lone and Yeung, two otherwise average young men who see themselves as invincible superheroes whose fearlessness can save the world from monsters.

In reality, Lone and Yeung live with opera instructor Shan and Shan’s paranormal enthusiast niece Yit.  Lone has been with Shan since boyhood, when his father Wing crippled Shan and killed her brother in a car accident scheme that turned tragic.  Wing just finished serving a 10-year prison sentence.  His sudden release threatens to upend the lives of Lone’s extended family, but probably not nearly as much as an impending zombie outbreak, unexpected encounter with a celebrity martial artist, or onslaught of skin-melting decapitations courtesy of explosive projectile eggs.

Did I mention almost all of the above gets established in only seven minutes?  Get it.  Got it?  Good.

Six writers contributed to the script.  That number almost seems low given how many people, places, things, and events pack the movie’s luggage to bursting.  Sitting in a feature film director’s chair for the first time, Alan Lo impressively juggles every ball without too many floor-bound bounces.  Considering how many separate threads weave into one crazy quilt, Lo’s accomplishment is nothing short of impressive for combining disparate elements into one (mostly) cohesive story.

“Zombiology” contains more intangible content than can be dissected in one straightforward review.  Undercurrents of relatable human drama parallel almost every piece of surface appeal featuring brotherly bumblers and undead antics.  Heavy with themes of regret, redemption, guilt, and failure, “Zombiology” makes it easy to lose sight of its more mature messages when weapon-wielding superheroes are busily battling cartoon chickens in animated interludes.  “Zombiology” flirts with extremely depressing subject matter at times, although energy levels usually boomerang back to pick up the pace again.

Music helps track changing moods.  Electric rock and roll intensifies action.  Jubilant melodies provide punchlines when jokes steal the spotlight.  Given the gamut “Zombiology” runs by bounding between gore, goofiness, and grounded moments of intimate interactions, it’s a welcome consideration that sounds as well as sights take time to synch with any currently depicted tone.

Better described as slightly “weird” than outright “wild,” “Zombiology’s” quirks could come at a steadier clip.  The movie rarely sags.  Even with regular pauses for quieter bonding scenes between two characters, each spinning plate of heart, horror, and humor remains rotating with zip.  Just don’t set expectations for a full bombardment of bizarreness like the premise might imply.

An awkward ending appears poised to leave some viewers underwhelmed at best or disappointed at worst.  “Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight” may miss some marks when it comes to satisfying every stroke of comedy, carnage, and character development used to paint a bigger picture.  Through the peaks of semi-outlandish theatrics and the valleys of slower soap opera stops, the film’s heart still beats steadily.  It also beats in the right place for being earnest as well as enjoyable in spite of occasional schizophrenic style.

As already mentioned, Japan’s status as king of off-the-wall midnight movies currently stays intact.  But “Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight” jostles that crown just a bit with a substantial shot across the bow of cinematic craziness.

NOTES: The film’s Mandarin title is “Jin wa da sang shi” and its original title was “Gam man da song si.”  There is also a mid-credits scene.

Review Score:  75

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