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Starring
:
Anthony
Wong
Danny
Lee
Emily
Kwan
Lau
Siu Ming
Shing
Fui On
Julia
Lee
Parkman
Wong
Action
:
Jimmy
Ha
Writer
:
Law
Gam Fai
Producer
:
Danny
Lee
Director
:
Herman
Yau
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THE
UNTOLD STORY (1993)
A.K.A.
- Bunman: The Untold Story; Human Meat Roast Pork Buns;
Human Pork Chop
Reviewed
by Phil Mills
As
this grisly story opens, we watch on as Wong Chi Hang and
another man finish up a game of Mahjong which results in Wong
emerging victorious. He then demands the man pay him his
winnings and an argument ensues which soon turns to violence
and Wong sadistically kills his opponent. Flash forward a few
months and Wong has now relocated to Macau under a new
identity and is running a restaurant called the Eight
Immortals. Although clearly an unstable individual, all
seems relatively normal for Wong as he is attempting to get his
lawyers to sign over the ownership of the restaurant to him
from the previous owner. Meanwhile the police are
investigating a somewhat disturbing case of a bag of body parts
that has washed up on the beach but they have no real
leads. That is until they are turned on to the case of
the missing previous owner of the Eight Immortals restaurant
and as they begin to investigate Wong, they soon uncover a
tale of terror that they could never have perceived in their
wildest nightmares...
The
category III horror genre is still a relatively unknown one
for me and 'The Untold Story'
is only my second experience, following on from the eerie yet ultimately
unsatisfying 'Dr.
Lamb'. Although it is clear from the start that this is
a far more logically structured piece of work than the aforementioned 'Dr.
Lamb', it is also apparent that 'The Untold Story' almost
seems to fall flat where 'Dr. Lamb' succeeded and vice versa. For starters,
one of
the main problems and core components of the film that is severely
lacking is the performance of leading man Anthony Wong. It's been proved time and time
again that Wong is a very talented actor but oddly enough, he does little
here to breathe life into his pivotal leading character and fails to instil
the crucial aspect of fear. Instead,
he comes across as more of a grumpy old man that kills without
motif and doesn't possess any of the attributes of a truly
sadistic killer. Sure, he grimaces at all the right
points and has the stare down to a fine art but it all feels
like one giant cliché that never
really allows you to see his performance as anything more than
acting.
Herman
Yau's handling of 'The Untold Story' also brings about a mixed
bag of results. Whilst its fair to say he does a
commendable job with the direction, opting for the realistic
and gritty approach rather than making the film over
elaborate, its also evident that the film lacks the heart to
make it really stand out. In my opinion this is mainly
attributable to the way that Yau chooses to display Wong's
character as he abandons any explanation or back story and we
are just expected to accept that he kills without
meaning. This restricts Wong's ability to truly emote
within his character and so its up to the audience to attempt
to fill in the blanks which makes it extremely difficult to
either empathise or detest the leading character.
However, in a somewhat ironic move Yau actually chooses to
spend the final third of the film trying to force the viewer
to sympathise with Wong which is totally unrealistic when
we've just sat and witnessed the horrific crimes he has
performed. Regardless of whether he is mistreated by the
(somewhat inept and comical) policemen, it is crazy for him
ever to demand the audience to feel sorry for his predicament.
As
is to be expected from a film within this genre, the violence
level in 'The Untold Story' is extremely high and it is not recommended
for the faint hearted amongst you. Throughout the film,
Wong butchers his way through numerous victims in suitably
grotesque fashions with the added bonus of him hacking them
into pieces and serving them up for lunch afterwards.
The gore hounds amongst you will undoubtedly lap this up and the
effects are without a doubt very well done, so much so that
some may well be forced to look away out of disgust. This is of course an
essential ingredient required to make these types of film work
but in the case of 'The Untold Story', I couldn't help but feel that it
was occasionally looking to instil controversy rather than
create a truly artistic piece of work. My case in point is the rape sequence as even
though this is clearly the kind of act that would be performed
by such a twisted man, some of it goes a little too far and drags
the sequence out to levels where the taste barrier becomes
apparent.
Whilst
I ultimately deem 'The Untold Story' to be an improvement over 'Dr.
Lamb', it is
probably more a case of one step forward and one step
back. In my opinion, for a film to truly succeed as a
horror flick it needs to combine the gore and chills with a
finely constructed story and solid acting. Although its
evident 'The Untold Story' shows flashes of these traits, its
more likely that most will walk away unfulfilled and still
curious as to what the fuss is all about.
Rating:
  
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