A plague in human form becomes a Typhoid Mary and an even greater threat.
What They Say:
Kai San is a sleazy and despicable bastard of the most epic proportions! After being caught screwing the wife of his boss, he goes on a killing spree and flees Hong Kong.
10 years later, Kai finds himself working as a restaurant chef in South Africa. Overworked, underpaid, berated, berated, and extorted by the restaurant owners who know of his fugitive status, Kai is a ticking timebomb…
While visiting an Ebola infected tribe to purchase some discount meat for the restaurant, Kai takes time out of his busy schedule to rape a sick native woman on his way back to work. Fortunately for our anti-hero, he’s a one in a million kind of guy – the kind that recovers from Ebola, yet continues to carry and spread the disease. Now he’s mad as hell, and he’s not gonna take it anymore! Kai embarks on an over the top killing/raping/Ebola-spreading rampage unlike anything you have ever seen! The Ebola burgers are hot on the grill, and the bodily fluids are flowing freely! Directed by Herman Yau (The Untold Story), and starring Anthony Wong (Infernal Affairs, Storm Riders, Hard Boiled) in a truly brilliant performance, Ebola Syndrome offers up plenty of gore and sex, tempered with a wicked sense of humor.
The Review:
Audio:
The only audio available for this feature is a 2.0 Cantonese track. It is a fairly basic track with the sound split evenly between the two front speakers though it is free of dropouts and distortions. Despite its basic nature the audio is mixed well enough and the dialogue is clear and not muddled and the effects and music carry well.
Video:
The video isn’t particularly special either. Originally created in 1996 the feature is presented in 1:85.1 anamorphic widescreen and is listed as being from a remastered transfer. The film contains grain, color bleed, dot crawl, interlacing, some print damage and the scenes have a washed out appearance. Part of me wonders if this is what the remastered transfer looks like what it looked like before the remastering work was done on it.
Packaging:
The feature comes packaged in a standard DVD case with the front cover artwork being an ink-sketch art cover of the main character Kai San against a yellow, orange and red background. The title is in white near the bottom of the cover along as is the main actor and director who are listed with some of their career highlights. The back cover features three stills from the feature with the DVD’s copy being written over the international symbol for biohazard and continuing the reddish orange theme. The disc features a picture from the film that was used to create the ink sketch with Kai San holding a pair of scissors as he has a sneer on his blood covered face.
Menu:
The main menu features the sneering image that was used on the disc and is looped to have Kai San breathing heavily and menacingly on the left. The right side has a full shot of Kai San and underneath that is a superimposed video loop that contains a number of shots from the film while a creepy music track plays in the background. The audio select screen uses an image from the film taken from inside Kai San’s mouth as he looks at a young woman and some sparkle effects are used to demonstrate the danger at that point in the film from the Typhoid Mary Kai has become. The scene select screen uses an image from the film of a character looking in a mirror in a washroom with the mirror image having been replaced with small pictures representing the chapters as the main screen’s track playing as well. The special features screen features a scowling character on the right as scenes from the more plague centric parts of the film play just above it. Selection highlights are shown by drops that look like blood and the menu is quick to respond to changes though there is a bit of delay in implementation of selections.
Extras:
The extras on this feature are never before seen deleted scenes, an interview with the director Herman Yau and a commentary track featuring Herman Yau and feature star Anthony Wong. The disc also contains what is labeled a “hilarious Hong Kong subtitles” but in a very brief sampling no major difference was seen to appear as “hilarious.”
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The feature begins in 1986 as Kai San and his boss’s wife are engaging in an affair believing the husband to be out of town. It turns out he isn’t out of town at all and comes into the apartment along with a friend after seeing his daughter Lily in front of the entrance to the apartment. The husband proceeds to beat Kai savagely and threatens to cut Kai’s manhood off. Kai pleads to be allowed to do it himself and when his boss is lured into a false sense of security Kai goes on a rampage killing his boss, his boss’s friend and the boss’s wife who tried to place all the blame on Kai. As he is about to leave he notices that Lily is in the apartment as well. He douses her in gasoline and prepares to set her on fire but he is interrupted by someone coming in and he flees the scene.
The story continues a decade later as Kai has fled to South Africa where he works as a chief in a restaurant. He is over a barrel though as the owner knows he is a criminal and uses that leverage to underpay Kai while his wife abuses him. Things aren’t any easier in the town in general as South Africa’s white population was never really known for their cultural acceptance in general and things aren’t any easier for the Chinese people living there as they are treated badly by everyone from the butchers to the prostitutes. Kai’s life isn’t going to get any easier either as a young airline attendant named Lily has come into town and entered the restaurant where he works and has flashbacks to a dark period in her life-watching her parents murdered by a man she can’t remember by sight but whose scent she knows.
Meanwhile, looking to get a better price on their meat Kai and his boss travel outside the city they live in and go to visit one of the tribes that will sell to them without the prejudice (and mark up) that the white butchers have. After an eventful trip that includes an encounter with a leopard they arrive in a village where the tribe is conducting a strange rite around some dead and clearly diseased bodies. This doesn’t stop the men from purchasing some pigs there but on their way home Kai drives off the path and into a tree when a pack of elephants pass in front of him. He walks away from his boss as they fight over truck repairs and comes across a villager who has collapsed by the water. Kai being the complete abomination that he is rapes her but is covered in bile when she throws up. Kai decides t head back to the truck as it is a long walk back and gets there just as the repairs are completed.
Returning back to the restaurant Kai suddenly comes down with a high fervor and a doctor is brought in to treat him. It turns out the village they went to has been experiencing an Ebola outbreak and Kai has caught it-though instead of killing him he survives to be a modern Typhoid Mary. His fervor breaks as he hears his boss’s wife talking with a relative about disposing of Kai on the street before he dies in the restaurant where he also lives. Kai goes into a murderous rage as he kills his boss, the relative who has shown up to dispose of him and the boss’s wife after raping her. He then disposes of the bodies in a particularly nasty way and finds the boss’s hidden safe. He uses the money to return to Hong Kong as Lily is trying to convince South African police Kai is a wanted criminal. Now the pieces are starting to fall into place as Hong Kong police discover they not only have a wanted murderer in their midst but also the carrier of a virulent plague whose wake has created an outbreak in South Africa-how will they stop a man with no conscience and nothing to lose before a massive outbreak occurs in their city?
Ebola Syndrome is a particularly disturbing little piece about an incredibly vile man doing incredibly vile things. The story is fairly straight forward and lacks a sense of subtext as well as any pretence at being anything other than a tribute to violence and sex while using the fear of a virus that had been in the headlines to underline the fear aspect. If you are looking for violence, sex and viruses this is your picture. If not then it is highly likely this film will do nothing for you other than give some feelings of repulsion at the lead character and a number of others found within. The film also losses some punch now that the year of extreme fear over Ebola has passed as it exists in the film just to up the fear quotient but doesn’t add anything to the story itself. The film feels a bit on the weak side as the story just goes from point to point without much character development and a good deal too many coincidences to really be believable. It is too bad the story wasn’t easier to recommend as Discotek really didn’t cut any corners for the release. The release includes a new anamorphic remastered transfer, deleted scenes, and an interview with the director as well as commentary from the director and film star. It feels like a shame that so much work went into a film that will appeal to such a small subset of viewers.
In Summary:
Unless you are looking for some sex, violence, and disease fear thrill that shock cinema provides Ebola Syndrome really brings nothing much to the table. It doesn’t have particularly deep or masterful storytelling or incredible acting performances. If these qualities are something you are looking for then the shock value is one that will catch your attention but everyone else will be much happier just ignoring that this feature even exists.
Features:
Cantonese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles (new), English Subtitles (old), Commentary Track, Director Interview, Deleted Scenes
Content Grade: D+
Audio Grade: C
Video Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: C
Menu Grade: C+
Extras Grade: A+
Released By: Discotek
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Samsung 50″ Plasma HDTV, Denon AVR-790 Receiver with 5.1 Sony Surround Sound Speakers, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080.