Bloody Buns
AKA: The New Human Meat Pork Buns
Year of release: 2003
Genre: horror
Director: Tien Jun
Stars: Hugo Ng, Bessie Chan, Suen Kwok Ming, Mak Wai-Kin
Rated III for violence, nudity, sex and language
Version reviewed: Universe VCD
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Bloody BunsAKA: The New Human Meat Pork Buns Year of release: 2003 Genre: horror Director: Tien Jun Stars: Hugo Ng, Bessie Chan, Suen Kwok Ming, Mak Wai-Kin Rated III for violence, nudity, sex and language Version reviewed: Universe VCD |
I wasn't quite sure if Bloody Buns was supposed to be a remake or a parody of The Untold Story. Upon doing a bit of research (having to wade through the, shall we say, saliacious results one gets after typing this movie's name on a search engine was amusing to say the least), it turns out that this is actually a remake. However, besides this being yet another cheap digital video straight-to-VCD production, Bloody Buns is missing the two most important factors that made The Untold Story a sleaze classic: Anthony Wong and bucketloads of gore.
For those of you who don't know the plot, like The Untold Story, Bloody Buns is loosely based on the case of Wong Chi-Hung, a lunatic that killed and chopped up an entire family. As with most "true crime" movies, the film-makers took some liberties with the story, most notably the addition of a bit when Wong cooked up the remains of his victims in BBQ pork buns. The police force in both movies is portrayed as a bunch of horny buffoons, with only a tomboyish detective (Bessie Chan in this case) really concerned with cracking the case. Once Wong is captured, much attention is given to the torturous techniques the cops use in order to extract a confession from the killer.
The Untold Story suffered from uneven pacing and some really lousy attempts at comedy, but it had a very sharp edge to it -- it did things not seen in movies before or since, which were bolstered by Anthony Wong's incredible performance as Wong Chi-Hung. Bloody Buns, on the other hand, is one of the tamest Category III movies I've seen. There's very little blood, and what's there looks incredibly cheap. As an example, in The Untold Story, Wong rapes one of his victims with chopsticks in one of the most brutal scenes ever. In Bloody Buns, Wong knocks the woman's head into a wall. It's still fairly graphic, but at the same time, it's pretty dull -- and don't even get me started on the obviously rubber severed limbs and ketchup-esque fake blood.
Things aren't helped any by the acting, which is poor all around. The only highlight is Hugo Ng's turn as Wong Chi-Hung. He does come off as creepy and twisted, but, again, it's a poor man's version of The Untold Story. Combined with the ultra-low budget and production values which make the movie look like it was shot for a couple of bucks and a bag of aluminum cans, Bloody Buns is really only for die-hard gorehounds only -- and that's after they've seen the better films in the genre.
RATING: 5