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The Untold Story
Bunman: The Untold Story / The Eight Immortals Restaurant: The Untold Story
Hong Kong 1993
produced by Danny Lee (= Li Hsiu-Hsien), Parkman Wong (executive) for Heroes United Films
directed by Herman Yau
starring Anthony Wong, Danny Lee (= Li Hsiu-Hsien), Emily Kwan, Lau Siu-Ming, Shing Fui-On, Eric Kei, Lam King-Kong, Parkman Wong, James Ha, Julie Lee (= Julie Riva), Wong Tin-Dok, Kwong Chor-Fai, Leung Siu-Hung, Hui Si-Man, So Wai-Nam, Dave Lam Ching, Fei Pak, Cheung Chun-Hung, Lee Yee-Chong, Long Chi, Ng Kwok-Kin, Poon Ga-Yee, Tam Lai-Si, Atta Wong, Wong Ching-Man, Woo Yiu-Fung
written by Law Kam-Fai, Lau Wing-Kin, music by Jonathon Wong Bong, special makeup effects by Li Tien-Hsing
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The severed arms and legs of an old lady are washed ashore on a beach
in Macau, something that leaves Officer Lee (Danny Lee) and his team
(Emily Kwan, Eric Kei, Lam King-Kong, Parkman Wong) baffled - until he
receives a seemingly unrelated letter from Mainland China inquiring the
whereabouts of Cheng Lam (Lau Siu-Ming), owner of the Eight Immotrals
Restaurant. And interestingly, Cheng Lam is the son-in-law of the dead
lady. Lee's men check up on the restaurant and find no trace of Cheng Lam
and family, with the new owner Wong claiming they must have emigrated to
Canada. However, his story isn't free of holes, and when Lee and company
want to re-check on his statement, they curiously find his cashier (Julie
Lee) gone. Wong claims she has returned to Mainland China, but lacks any
real conviction, so Lee puts him under observation. And his suspicion is
of course well-founded because only last night Wong killed the cashier,
chopped her up, and worked her flesh into his delicious pork buns. Lee of
course doesn't know that yet ... Eventually, Lee gets his hands on Wong
when he and his team find the passports of Cheng Lam and family in Wong's
trash - which is pretty damning evidence but not yet a smoking gun, so
they try to beat a confession out of him, but that only leads to newspaper
reports about police brutality. But Lee figures there's another way to get
Wong to confess, by throwing him into prison with Cheng Lam's brother
(Shing Fui-On), as should the two stumble across one another, the brother
will beat Wong to a pulp - and of course Lee sees to it that they meet.
Wong makes many attempts to escape or to kill himself, but eventually Lee
has him exactly where he wants him - but Wong's confession is harder to
stomach than anyone could have expected ... The Untold Story
is a weird movie indeed, as on one hand it's ultra violent and a true
gorefest, and on top of that very cynical about its own brutality - and on
the other hand it's broad comedy, with most of the jokes slightly sexist
in nature, and with the one female member of Lee's team (Emily Kwan) being
on the recieving end of many of them. But while other films from roughly
that era managed to blend ultra-violence and comedy to a homogenous whole
- best example being of course Peter Jackson's Braindead -, the two
very disparate elements just won't merge here and seem to stand in
contradiction to one another, especially since the comedy does nothing to
drive the story. Curiously though, these rather jarring shifts in tone
really make The Untold Story into what it is, a very bizarre piece
of horror that might be slightly aimless in regards to its direction but
that most certainly doesn't fail to shock at all the right moments, and
Anthony Wong's almost camp performance as lead psycho sure manages to
leave a disturbing impression. Not a classic per se, but if one's at all
into gore cinema, this sure is a must-see oddity.
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