'Bunman: The Untold Story' director Herman Yau and star Anthony Wong reunite for this depraved tale of murder, rape and deadly infections. Anyone familiar with their earlier infamous work knows that these two will go to extremes to gross out and horrify the audience, and in The Ebola Syndrome, they pull out all the stops as we follow the story of Kai vicious killer, sex beast and carrier of the titular disease.
Wong plays Kai, who, after killing three people in Hong Kong (and unwittingly leaving a young girl as a witness), flees to South Africa, where he finds employment in a Chinese restaurant. Kai obviously has issues, since he delights in such dubious pleasures as spitting and masturbating into the restaurant's food, and, whilst on a trip to a Zulu village to buy meat, he stops to rape an unconscious native woman. It is from her that he contracts Ebola, a highly contagious disease that causes liquefying of the internal organs.
Kai falls ill, but miraculously recovers several days later; it transpires that he is one of the few that can survive the disease to become carriers, spreading Ebola though the exchange of bodily fluids.
Kai kills the restaurant owners (after first having raped the woman), and, in a scene reminiscent of The Untold Story, makes burgers from their minced up bodies. These he sells to the restaurant's customers, spreading Ebola throughout Johannesburg.
But, unbeknownst to Kai, the little girl from the opening scene, now fully grown, has recently visited the restaurant and suspects him of being her parents' killer. She goes to the authorities with her suspicions and now, with the police hot on his trail, Kai heads back to HK where he leaves a trail of death in his wake.
Director Yau, obviously inspired by the previous year's 'Outbreak', could've crafted a taut horror, playing on the audience's fears of infection, or created a gore-filled splatterfest, but instead he mostly opts for grossing out the audience with cheap shots like the aforementioned wanking scene and much rough sex. He even throws in some real-life animal mutilation, just for good measure.
Whilst there is plenty of depravity for fans of shock-cinema to enjoy, the Ebola Syndrome ultimately fails to match the extreme visceral punch that made The Untold Story so memorable.
Wong plays Kai, who, after killing three people in Hong Kong (and unwittingly leaving a young girl as a witness), flees to South Africa, where he finds employment in a Chinese restaurant. Kai obviously has issues, since he delights in such dubious pleasures as spitting and masturbating into the restaurant's food, and, whilst on a trip to a Zulu village to buy meat, he stops to rape an unconscious native woman. It is from her that he contracts Ebola, a highly contagious disease that causes liquefying of the internal organs.
Kai falls ill, but miraculously recovers several days later; it transpires that he is one of the few that can survive the disease to become carriers, spreading Ebola though the exchange of bodily fluids.
Kai kills the restaurant owners (after first having raped the woman), and, in a scene reminiscent of The Untold Story, makes burgers from their minced up bodies. These he sells to the restaurant's customers, spreading Ebola throughout Johannesburg.
But, unbeknownst to Kai, the little girl from the opening scene, now fully grown, has recently visited the restaurant and suspects him of being her parents' killer. She goes to the authorities with her suspicions and now, with the police hot on his trail, Kai heads back to HK where he leaves a trail of death in his wake.
Director Yau, obviously inspired by the previous year's 'Outbreak', could've crafted a taut horror, playing on the audience's fears of infection, or created a gore-filled splatterfest, but instead he mostly opts for grossing out the audience with cheap shots like the aforementioned wanking scene and much rough sex. He even throws in some real-life animal mutilation, just for good measure.
Whilst there is plenty of depravity for fans of shock-cinema to enjoy, the Ebola Syndrome ultimately fails to match the extreme visceral punch that made The Untold Story so memorable.