ZOMBIOLOGY: ENJOY YOURSELF TONIGHT (今晚打喪屍) (2017)

Genre: Comedy/Horror
Director: Alan Lo　
Cast: Michael Ning, Louis Cheung, Cherry Ngan, Venus Wong, Carrie Ng, Alex Man
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence)
Released By: Shaw 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 29 June 2017

Synopsis: Lung (Michael Ning) and Chi-Yeung (Louis Cheung) are two eccentric hot-blooded young men leading a devil-may-care life. They deem themselves as heroes who can save the earth. However, Lung can do nothing about things in life that don’t work out as he wishes. A monster from Lung’s favourite animation appears in the city out of reason and turns people into zombies. The outbreak of this zombie crisis is followed by widespread chaos. Chat-Yat (Cherry Ngan), a girl Chi-Yeung is fervently chasing, has gone missing as well. Lung risks his life and breaks into the infected town in order to bring her back home. He comes to realise that he is merely a loser and slick talker. However, Lung decides not to avoid his true self, and resolves to fight a battle against zombies tonight!

Movie Review:

The title of this zombie horror flick makes people guffaw. Why “Enjoy Yourself Tonight” when there are undead corpses running after you? Or does the enjoyment belong to the zombies? Something about the title tells us that the movie has the potential to be a cult classic with out of this world characters and crazy sequences that will be long remembered in the history of Hong Kongcinema.

Indeed there are out of this world characters: watch out for a giant stuffed chicken that – gasp - may just be a figment of imagination leading to the fact that the whole story is nothing but an episode happening inside the protagonist’s head. How trippy is that! Does this mean that this 107 minute movie is an existentialist piece of work that is deeper than what it appears to be?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Alan Lo makes his directorial feature length debut with a screenplay based on a popular novel and his own 2012 short film Zombie Guillotines (search for it online).

After taking home the Best Supporting Actor and Best New Performer prizes at the 35^th Hong Kong Film Awards and the Best Supporting Actor accolade at the 52^nd Golden Horse Awards for his memorable performance in Port of Call (2015), Michael Ning plays a young man who believes that he is a world saving superhero. He is joined by an equally eccentric friend played by Louis Cheng (Line Walker), and together, the duo battles zombies after an unexpected outbreak happens in the city.

In the mix is a Cantonese opera singer (Carrie Ng), a father who suddenly shows up after spending 15 years in prison (Alex Man) and a paranormal nerd who happens to be really cute (Cherry Ngan).

World War Z (2013) and Train to Busan (2016) this is not. Just when you thought it will be a straightforward chase and run zombie flick that you can enjoy without much thinking, the last bit of the movie throws things off balance.

First, there are those ridiculous exploding eggs that reduce human heads into skulls while leaving the bodies intact. Yup, you read correctly – exploding eggs. The somewhat hilarious weapons of choice were novel for a while, before you realise the good guys are just dodging from these eggs shooting out of nowhere. Then comes the giant stuffed chicken. You will giggle at the absurdity of the setup, before realising that the filmmakers are using it to explore teen angst. We are not sure how all these exactly add up.

The best parts of the movie are helmed by Ng and Man, two veteran actors older viewers would find familiar. Ng plays a cripple, and Man (who has put on quite a bit of weight since we saw him on local TV series Golden Pillow and Brave New World) plays the man responsible for that unfortunate accident. The two effortlessly play out the chemistry between the two characters, proving that the older generation of actors still have what it takes to command the screen. 

Movie Rating:

(It is unlikely that you will enjoy yourself while watching this zombie flick, but there are some truly bizarre sequences that will make you sit up and stare)

Review by John Li