MY REVIEW OF IT!!!

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THE UNTOLD STORY(1993)
(Directed by Danny Lee and Herman Yau)

Plot: A serial killer uses his victims as ingredients for his restaurant. But the police are hot in his trail. Also known as "Baat sin faan dim ji yan yuk cha siu baau"


Review:

"The Untold Story" is a controversial Hong Kong movie that caused quite a stir when it was released. Anthony Wong got the best actor award in the Hong Kong Film Awards, and it's gruesome nature has given it a cult following in the west. It's also often referred to as Hong Kong's equivalent to "Silence of the Lambs". I heard about this movie on the International Movie Database website while visiting the "Cannibal Holocaust" forum. Someone was asking which movie was more disturbing. I guess I'll answer that now. "The Untold Story" has a few moments that are probably more shocking than "Cannibal Holocaust", but that movie has more shocking moments in general. I also think I prefer that one over this one. But let's see why.

"The Untold Story" begins with Wong Chi Hang trying to get a loan from some guy. He turns Wong down and Wong kills him by lighting him on fire. We then see through some montage shots that Wong has gotten a new identity and moved to a new place. He's now the owner of a small restaurant and is trying to legally own the restaurant. Apparently the original owner and his entire family have vanished.......Uh oh. Anyway, Wong seems to have gotten crazier, as he begins murdering those who piss him off again. He then starts using their flesh and meat as ingredients for his restaurant.

On the other hand, we are introduced to a bunch of bumbling cops. These guys REALLY suck. They withhold information from each other just to take the credit, they're lazy, they're sleazy, they're stupid, they're incompetent and we have to wonder how they got these jobs to begin with. When body parts wash up on the beach, they quickly determine her identity. They get a letter asking about a missing person but they brush it off. Eventually they find a connection between the missing person(who was the original owner of Wong's restaurant) and the washed up body parts(they were related). They go to investigate Wong, who seems quite suspicious. Eventually Wong is caught and is sent to prison, where we see he now has to survive against the onslaught of angry inmates.

The movie is part mad slasher, part bumbling cop movie, and part prison survival movie. The result is something of an uneven mess. I hate it when movies have schizophrenic tones. You'll have a scene where a character is murdering or raping someone violently. It's nihilistic and disturbing. Then it cuts to some comical cops who simply feel like they belong in another movie. If you hated "Last House on the Left" for it's pointless and distracting comic relief policemen, then you will hate this movie even more. Here, the cops are main characters who get about half of the screen time. It simply feels like two movies were combined or something. When it gets to the prison sequences, the pacing suddenly dies out and I got bored with it.

The directors do a competent job I guess. I actually think they did best with the comedy. This movie actually does have some very funny parts. The bumbling cop scenes are surprisingly bright too, compared to the dark and damp scenes of our serial killer doing his thing. The movie has some suspense, but not enough. The atmosphere is also decent during these scenes, but not enough for me to really admire. In short, it feels like the directors are simply relying on the actor to carry the movie as well as the gore.

With all that said and done, this isn't really a bad movie. Almost everything about it is competent or serviceable, but there is simply very little that stood out for me. The cops were surprisingly annoying, but oddly I never hated them. The killer was vicious and ruthless, and thankfully we never are supposed to sympathize with him. It simply failed to connect with me. If I want a comedy, I'll rent a comedy. If I want a horror, I'll rent a horror. If I want a prison survival movie, I'll rent one of those. I admire the fact they tried to put this all into one movie, but it simply didn't work for me.

Anthony Wong(Wong) is very scary as the killer. He's the best thing about this movie. He's intense, yet can come across as a normal guy. Emily Kwan(Bo) is cute as the female cop and is actually very charming. The cops all overact, but it didn't annoy me that much. Danny Lee(Officer Lee) is amusing as the superior.

Violence: NC-17 worthy. The most controversial scene is either when a bunch of kids get killed(violently) or when a woman gets killed by being raped with chopsticks. Ew, yes, it's very gory.

Nudity: The rape scene has the poor gal showing everything.

Overall: "The Untold Story" is a movie that could've remained being untold and I think the world would move on fine. Still, some people really admire this. I simply found it to be a gory exploitation movie with an intense actor as the lead. It's not bad, but I think it's kind of bland to be honest. Movies like :"Silence of the Lambs" simply shouldn't be combined with movies like "Pink Panther".

2/4 Stars


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