WE ARE GOING TO EAT YOU!

WE ARE GOING TO EAT YOU!

Kung Fu, secret agents, and flesh-eating zombies -- these are the meaty, malevolent pleasures awaiting you in We Are Going To Eat You. A loving presentation of a sadly underappreciated film, this hybrid of zombies, gore, and dark comedy is an explosion of action and attitude. Devoted to spectacle, the film is a peon to bad taste, focusing on the exhilarating action and home-grown splatter that would later energize the films of such young directors as Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson. Graphic and fast-paced exploitation, it predates the gore-comedy craze that shadowed the eighties and nineties, resonating a fetishistic sense of grim vitality lacking from the genre today. Media Blasters presents this piece of inspired lunacy to purveyors of putrid limb-loping in a surprisingly clean copy.

In a plot taking advantage of every opportunity to meld jaw-dropping spectacle with dizzying amounts of low brow gore, this uneven if energetic showcase of lunacy houses a scattered and uneven plot in a dizzying array of effects and attitude. Agent 999 (Tsui Siu-keung) chases a criminal named Rolex (Melvin Wong) to a primitive, forgotten village beset by poverty only to discover an evil more terrifying. The villagers have resorted to cannibalism! It soon becomes clear that Agent 999 has a decision to make: he must either combine forces with his enemy (similar to Enemy Mine fashion), and battle hordes of vicious rabid villagers, or . . . well, get eaten! The result is a fast, furious, splatter-happy ode to debauchery. The black humor layered amidst the suspense and viscera colors the entire story with a sense of the absurd, making the experience more fun than horrific.

A bold merging of genres and aesthetic approach, We Are Going To Eat You evokes various emotions, juxtaposing laughter with shock, suspense with repulsion. For the most part, incredulous disbelief is the chief emotion aroused. Far from harming the film -- as would often be the case -- the decision on the part of the filmmaker's to present the action as a non-stop roller coaster ride rather than a believable depiction of zombie terror lends a slap-stick appeal. This is, in fact, the perfect 'party movie.' High on emotional stimulus if low on characterization, the chief pleasure of the experience is a relentless charge forward. The narrative races at a furious pace, encouraging us to overlook its continuity errors or from questioning its lapses of plot logic by fixing our gaze on the plentiful acrobatics, plot twists, and gory carnage (still another template for modern genre titles). Tsui Hark's second film (Butterfly Murders being the first) is benefited by furious editing and conscious lapses of traditional logic, all of which lend a surrealistic verve to the stylish set-pieces. The film as a whole makes up for with comedic value what it may lack in polished technique. Certainly not for everyone, lacking the serious dramatic approach that makes for truly disturbing storytelling, this early salute to Asian genre is a goofy, gratuitous good time for those seeking nothing more than some brainless (if meaty) entertainment.

Media Blaster's Tokyo Shock label presents We Are Going To Eat You in an admirable transfer. Featured in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1), the visual quality suffers some few instances of what looks to be slicing and a bit of grain, but never enough to harm the viewing experience; in fact, these moments are conducive to the story's grimy, down-and-dirty feel. Audio featured in Dolby Digital with optional subtitles is sharp and concise. Extras are disappointingly brief, as some context to the feature would have been appreciated, but the handful of trailers and a short Still Gallery lend some additional spice to the package, rounding out one of the most surprising (and surprisingly enjoyable) releases of the year.

Review by William P. Simmons


 
Released by Tokyo Shock
Region 1 - NTSC
Not Rated
Extras : see main review
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