CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Leofwine_draca
Hong Kong's extreme Category III rating allows producers and directors to cater to the sickest desires of their audiences by focusing on violence, sex, sexual violence and scenes of depravity normally not found in mainstream cinema. During the 1990s, there was a boom in such productions, with the most popular inevitably starring Anthony Wong as some kind of crazed killer or pervert.THE EBOLA SYNDROME is one of the best-known of its kind and that's no surprise; this is one hell of a ride of a film, chock-full of bad taste scenes in which the writer tries to go out of his way to offend everybody watching. The protagonist, played by Wong, is a guy who goes around raping women and eventually contracting and spreading the Ebola virus, which leads to much unpleasantness.From the opening set-piece you know what you're in for with this one: tons of bad language, naked women and gross gore effects. The directors throws in animal dissection, autopsies and all kinds of sickening stuff involving food production that's guaranteed to turn your stomach. Rape and murder are commonplace, and yet at the same time there's daft comedy to offset the darkness. It's all portrayed so over the top and ridiculously that none of it is disturbing.What surprised me most about THE EBOLA SYNDROME is that it's a well made movie comparable with other Hong Kong films of the 1990s. The technical values are strong and the acting isn't too shabby either; Wong is a commanding actor and you can see why he's enjoyed mainstream as well as cult success. Yes, this is an unpleasant and sometimes childish film in the way it seeks out one depravity after another, but at the same time it's undeniably entertaining and it goes down avenues that Hollywood wouldn't dare. The ending rampage is by far my favourite part of the movie and has to be seen to be believed.
Robert J. Maxwell
This Grand Guignol comes from the austere People's Republic of China? Jende ma?I sat through about half of this frenzied mess before tuning out. It isn't that I found it too gross. The living frogs being chopped up weren't so bad. I've dissected frogs in class. The chickens getting their heads wrenched off weren't that offensive because I saw lots of chickens get it when I was a child. I helped castrate pigs in Pago Pago. It's that it was badly made, as if by an amateur on crack.It's loud, fast, full of lurid color, and in the first half hour the director gives us -- let me think -- well, it begins with adultery, goes on to torture and mass murder, spitting a ginder into a pot of tea, doing to a piece of pork what Alexander Portnoy did to a piece of liver in "Portnoy's Complaint," rape, decapitation, ejaculating into a body in its death throes, serving sweet and sour pork to a diner who'd ordered steamed pork, and wearing white after Labor Day.Violence can be done poetically. It has more impact when some care is taken with it. It was shocking when Roman Polanski's midget put a slice through Jack Nicholson's naris in "Chinatown." This violence is boring because the film is nothing but violence. Can anyone sit through a pornographic feature film without being bored? No. No one can. This movie runs into the same problem with satiation. Enough doesn't necessarily mean that the bloodshed and degradation must be forced on you as if you were a Strassbourg goose.Let's face facts. Anyone who finds violence, sex, blood, and screaming insults attractive, has never been married.Well, let me add a plus. Most of the Chinese girls are very attractive, dressed or disheveled. Gong Li should have shown so much flesh.
ks_reed
I saw this film because I, in a special kind of way, enjoy disgusting ,outrageous, deplorable films. This film is all of these things, and is really only good for a laugh, an uneasy disturbed laugh. I just feel like this film was a bit too over the top, which I understand is the point, but I felt so dumb after watching it. I wasn't looking for redeemable qualities. The reason I think I watch these films is to satisfy a kind of morbid curiosity. It's like wanting to watch the aftermath of a car accident, that rubbernecking sh*t. I'm curious, but I also feel sorta ashamed. About feeling dumb-the low level of intelligence this film requires to behold it, is at the level of my shoe. This film is low-class. I have viewed a limited number of these Asian(extreme?) films, and do not consider myself an expert of this kind of genre. I understand that this film sort of defines its genre. The first half of this film is full of violence, gore, nasty sex and rape, peeing. I feel that the rape scene (with the boss's wife) could've been written and directed by a horny little teenager. I get it, I get it-it's supposed to be so outrageous that it's funny. It just seems filthy, and a shame that money, effort and time was put into the making of this film. I didn't find myself laughing because of how stupid it was. I wasn't appalled, either. I just felt kinda sad that the film wasn't what I though it would be. The second half of the film slows down, and w/o its gore and violence, it really is nothing. I will say that I enjoyed some of the dialogue, and appreciated it for what it was meant to be: trashiness. Seeing Wong terrorize the streets of HK at the end, howling, "EEEBBBOOOLLLLAAAAA, EBBBOLLAAAAA!!!!," was comical to me.
TTKKane
Well hot on the heels of my pimping mini-review of The Untold Story comes.. The Ebola Syndrome.Well I'll start by saying that TUS and TES are very similar - both directed by Herman Yau, both starring Anthony Wong and really both have a similar premise. What sets this apart is Anthony Wongs self-destructive (or maybe...other-people destructive ) rampage certainly has a lot more dark humor.Where the more awkward comedy from TUS comes from the cops, Anthony Wong himself is the chief buffoon. However, along with the comedy elements, he is certainly more creepy and disgusting than in TUS (where he is simply more psychotic).The basis of the story is that Wong's character is on the run, gets a job an African restaurant, and contracts the flesh eating virus through nefarious means. Do not fret yet for Mr Wong, he is the one in a however-million people that spreads the disease without being affected by it. Being more than slightly deranged he causes havoc throughout the movie, murdering, raping and spreading the virus.I would rate this only slightly below The Untold Story, but both are essential viewing. Not for the squeamish or easily offended though.TTKK's Bottomline - Here is a section from the memorable quotes page on here - Kai San: With a butcher's knife in his hand he runs through the streets of Hong Kong in the brightest daylight and screams: Ebola! Ebooola! Ebooooooollllllaaa! If that doesn't want to make you see it, go back to watching The Fog remake...
