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 35th Hong Kong Film Awards and the Best Supporting Actor accolade at the 52nd 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.
