User reviews

When I bought this movie I didn't really have any expectations at all. I bought it online for a cheap price because a friend of mine recommended it. Wow, I'm sure glad I listened to him. Ebola Syndrome is really a lot of fun. It is packed with over-the-top violent scenes, but still has a lot of comedy and dark humor in it. This is a balances mix which makes the movie work. It does contain very graphic violence and even rape. So if you have a weak stomach I would advice you to avoid it. But what makes this movie really filthy and ugly is the main character of the story, Kai San. He really steals the show. Everything he does and says is both disturbing and funny in the same time. I won't go in to detail of the things that he does. But let's just say he's a really sick pervert with extreme needs.

It's hard to explain the tone of the movie. Because some scenes remind me of a horror movie, some reminds me of a comedy, and other scenes goes more into the thriller category. But still you can never really take everything too serious.

Back in the early 90s, I recall widespread concern about incurable diseases such as the Ebola virus, and Hollywood taking the premise and churning out movies such as Outbreak and the such. In Hong Kong cinema, director Herman Yau cemented his cult status for films with excessive graphic depiction of sex and violence with this movie - Ebola Syndrome.

As compared to the other cult hit The Untold Story, you can spot various similarities in terms of presentation style, and certain plot elements and development. Again the lead role, Kai San, is played by Anthony Wong, this time with long frizzy hair, and begins the movie with both sex (with his boss' wife) and violence (yet another gruesome massacre played out in full on screen, coupled with sexual violence). Naturally he becomes a fugitive and escapes to outside Hong Kong - this time to South Africa, and becomes an employee at a local Chinese restaurant.

The similarities do not end there. You just cannot wait for the next dismemberment and the making of the new "char siew bao", now termed African Buns for local flavour. Expect more hard unflinching violence, and this time too with the camera unmoved from the decapitation of animals like chickens and frogs - heart still pumping, and the slicing out of innards, or the chopping off of legs. Sure puts you off your next bowl of frog leg porridge. And serving as another reminder, is not to offend your cook, as he has the power to include unwanted ingredients, including bodily fluids! Rapid fire profane dialogue is a standard, and sometimes comical as the characters rattle off combinations of vulgarities with ease. But just in case you wonder if Ebola Syndrome is The Untold Story rehashed in a different setting, rest assure that only the good gory bits from Untold get squeezed into the first half of Ebola. Unfortunately the second half seemed to want to move away tangentially from its predecessor, and kept its focus on the contact with, and spreading of the disease.

Stemming from Kai San's inability to keep his pants on, he takes advantage of a comatose African tribe woman, who unknowing to him, is a victim of the Ebola virus. With an incredible stroke of luck, he survives the infection and becomes a virus carrier, spreading the disease in South Africa no thanks to his African Buns, and amongst prostitutes when he returns to Hong Kong. The rest of the movie becomes a comedy somewhat with the police attempts to contain the virus as well as to apprehend Kai San. Nothing too fancy in its second half treatment.

One more thing, look out carefully at the cameos and extras!

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.

What can I say about this wonderfully demented Category III classic, it goes beyond the boundaries of most Cat III films (which involve usually uninspired sex and violence) and goes for the jugular without flinching once.

Anthony Wong plays our demented anti-hero, even thou our introduction to him is himself getting a blow job off his boss's prostitute wife, while the kid waits outside. The boss returns and is unimpressed to say the least and after beating up our hero has the tables turned on him and is killed along with his wife and lackey.

10 years on and were in South Africa, our hero works in a filthy restaurant, gets bullied all day and resents everything living. Soon enough he is back to his own ways and after raping a unconscious woman, who spews a frothy broth of Ebola into his face he becomes infected with this nasty little disease, and the story has not even got up to speed yet.

A darkly comic tale that does not mind pushing the barriers of what is deemed acceptable, I loved it. Every home should have a corner for Ebola.

'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.

Nope! What a crazy flick!

Anthony Wong (Untold Story, Infernal Affairs) is back again as a crazy, sick son of a bitch. He plays Kai, an ugly, dirty, rapist/murderer....he's good at that role. Kai is the workhorse for a restaurant he works at. The boss and bosses wife treat him pretty poorly, he stands for it long enough and eventually does what he does best. Along the way he ends up getting infected by the Ebola Syndrome. A disease which makes infected people shake uncontrollably, and eventually makes their organs turn to mush. One in 10 million people that become infected are able to just be a carrier and not die from it. What happens when you have a murder/rapist who carries the Ebola virus around?

This movie is definitely not for everyone, but HOLY JEEZ, if you like CAT III flicks, or gross/weird/violent movies, there is really little reason for you to dislike this film. For fans of extreme cinema this is really a must see. And if you don't like it.....bully for you!

This is the edgiest movie I've seen produced by Wong Jin. It was not written or directed by him, so I can see that the edginess didn't come from him. But it might have been his attempt to try out the gore of "Untold Story". Anthony Wong plays the similar psychotic killer in the "Untold Story".

Kai (Anthony Wong" is a butcher at a restaurant. The boss' wife tries to seduce him, but the boss comes home and beats him up. Angry, he kills his boss, and flees to South Africa. There he's a butcher at Chinese restaurant again. To find cheap pork meat he goes to the native village outside of the city where Ebola outbreak is going on. He rapes a dying woman not knowing she's dying of Ebola. He gets infected too, but he doesn't show any symptoms. His restaurant owner treats him badly, and again he kills them. He returns to HK and outbreak of Ebola starts in HK as well.

This movie is bit high class compared to the "Untold Story" . Usual high quality production of Wong Jin can be seen in this movie too. Anthony Wong can play crazy man like nobody else.

Good story, good acting, and good production sums up this movie. With all these things going for it, the movie is an excellent action/thriller. Worth a watch.

7.5/10

Was this movie perhaps supposed to be a parody of those silly Italian horror movies from the '70's and mostly '80's? Sure looks like it to me. It has the same sort of style and also silliness over it. Fans of that genre will surely be able to appreciate this movie.

This is really one crazy movie that goes over the top with mainly its silliness. Its silliness also ensures that this movie never truly reaches the level of greatness but at the same time it also makes this a very entertaining movie to watch. You can say that the movie its silliness is both reason of its success and of its downfall.

Unfortunately the movie also tends to get a bit worse as it progresses. It looses some of its flair after a while, also due to its rather poor and simplistic story that just isn't heading into the best direction at times. The movie at the start showed far more potential. It's not like the movie totally disappointed but at the same time it also could had been a far better one if only the second halve of the movie would had been more like the first one. The second halve is just far less interesting and it doesn't always pick the best character to follow through the story.

It's a movie that features some gore as well as nudity (the main character is a serial rapist and killer) but overall it's not all as much as the first halve hour or so of the movie would suggest. It turns into a quite tame movie that perhaps also picks a too 'serious' approach for its movie in the end. Like I said before, it's a bit of a waste.

Guess not all people will be able to appreciate this movie and its style but those who are a bit familiar with the similar type of Italian movies from the '70's and especially '80's will surely enjoy watching this movie. They will take this movie simply for what it is; a simple enjoyable guilty pleasure, that is not the best but also certainly not the worst movie to watch out there.

7/10

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What can I say about a film which is directed by the director of the most brutal and undescribable Hongkong horror of all time, The Untold Story, and starred by Anthony Wong, who also starred in The Untold Story. These two films are very different, and this, Ebola Syndrome is the funnier/trashier of these two. In other words, a kind of sicko gore film that will never be equalled in Western cinema.

Story tells us the journeys of Kai (Wong) who rapes, kills and f*cks people (and beefs!) and owns a restaurant, too! What a nice cook we got here! He lives in Africa and is hiding from police, who is on his tail for a multi murder he committed in Hong Kong. At one point, he becomes infected with the notorious and deadly Ebola virus and then the "fun" begins..and thus the title.

The whole film is as twisted as possible as we are shown acts of murder, masturbation, rape and cannibalism in safe Hongkong style! There is no point in trying to review this as some kind of a "serious" film because this is pure trash and b-level horror/gore film. The violence is brutal and scenes involving ebola virus are disgusting as our hero infects other people with the disease. At some points the film is so vile and over-the-top that I couldn't do nothing but laugh in amazement. It is also shocking in non-laughing manner but for most of the time, this cannot be taken seriously, although this kind of film is banned in about every country. It is too bad that all versions available (Euro DVD and HK VCD) are censored pretty badly and I've heard that the director has stated that the uncut version doesn't even exist anymore. It would be more than interesting to see the full director's vision of this film!

So this is great experience for trash and sicko cinema lovers, but others stay away! You'll feel nothing but sick if you try to watch this! I think that most of the people who like this (and make these!) are considered seriously ill, but that doesn't worry me, because those people who consider lovers of this kind of cinema sick, understand nothing about marginal and alternative cinema.

If someone expects this to be some over-the-top violence show, a disappointment will follow, because it's not THAT bad. It is pretty sick but not too gory/violent. And keep in mind that the versions out there are censored and are not the director's final cut. Hongkong Laserdisc may be uncut but I really don't know for sure because I haven't ever bought/collected LDs. As I mentioned, HK VCD is cut for sure so it may be the case with that LD, too..

Excellent HK nasty/sicko/comedy(yeah!) but only for the right audience! 8/10 and without a doubt one of its kind.

Kai San is an amoral man with a short fuse whose main interest in life is sex.

This is a very simple character and the whole film revolves around him, so you can guess what the other characters are like.

But there is no big need for character development here, for this is an exploitation film through and through. Expect to see plenty of bloody murders, vomitting, gore, urination, detached body parts, animal carcasses - you name it.

Yet this is no Cannibal Holocaust. It's a silly movie that only takes itself seriously enough to set up a "straight" scene for the next hilariously outrageous scene. The director is well-aware of this and directed it in a quick and active style, reminiscent of Kung Fu movies.

Moreover, the choice of making it span continents and long periods of time makes the film more interesting in grand than if it just took place in a single locale. Kai goes from Hong Kong to South Africa and back. As such I would classify this as an Exploitation Epic.

There's clearly some social commentary in the film. While I can't say it's deep or broadly symbolic, I would say it does it better than most other Chinese films (at least those that are wont to be exported and consumed outside of China). Chinese kung fu or gangster films tend to involve grandiose but often unrelatable themes, such as revenge for honor, family feuds, or self-sacrifice.

Here we have a working man (mostly a poorly paid line cook) who's frustrated over many mundane and relatable grievances in his life. He's poor. Men of higher wealth or social status disrespect him. The female characters in the film either disrespect him or let him down. He not only witnesses but experiences racism from white society.

I'm not saying his actions are justified or that he's a sympathetic character, mind you. I solely say that this is a more humanized and relatable character from Chinese cinema than what we're used to getting from the likes of, say, Jackie Chan, whose characters, even when they're just cooks or delivery boys, have magical martial arts powers, boundless positivity, and unwavering luck that makes everything turn out well from them in the end.

Honourable Mentions: Falling Down (1993) about a frustrated racist white guy who blows a fuse and goes on a rampage.

What to say of this film? Maybe I had too high hopes for "Ebola Syndrome" as it was directed by Herman Yau, who also directed the "Untold Story". Both films have an eerily similar premise(Where the hell is your imagination,Yau?!!),featuring the same type of psycho courtesy of Anthony Wong, but whereas "The Untold Story" is somber, filthy and "evil", and doesn't really hold back when it comes to close-ups of slaughter and mayhem, "Ebola Syndrome" doesn't really deliver any murderous goodies in nearly the same vein I'm afraid. I had hoped dearly that the corpse-to-hamburger-transition would be succulently detailed and outstretched, but alas, what I got was not a beautiful dismemberment of a woman, but merely some off-screen sawing, and then a close up of bones with slinters of flesh attached. Not meaning to imply that this wasn't appreciated, merely saying that if Yau could let us see parts of a detailed autopsy(Which was quite nice, by the way!), why not so when it came to the butchering? The killings are pretty mundane, and knowing that I saw the "Strong Uncut Version", I begin to wonder how they look in the rated version. All in all I feel this is a film that is more focused on the tackiness of bodily fluids, the pathetic antics and sounds of the main-man, and not so much on creating a sinister and murderous vibe like "The Untold Story". Which, by the way, I would recommend watching instead of this.

This flick derives much of its grasping force from what has to be, if not the most explicit, at least somewhat the most sickening gore ever.

Some scenes are rather innovative : decapitation through the use of a ping-pong table, Kai blowing his load in a steak, corpses being chopped up into hamburger meat with a saw, eyes chewed out of a living head and lots of ebola-related bodily fluids.

Ebola syndrome would not be the same without the psychological profile of its main character.If we were given an insight on Kais childhood, it is likely to be a miserable one, full of abuse and rejection. Thus would explain his disturbed sexual attitude (he does not seem to be able to perform without constant oral stimulation) and his loser nature. Let's face it, most of his aggression originates from a lack of self-esteem, for which he tends to overcompensate once he disposes of financial powers and/or the opportunity to deploy physical force. It makes for a violent person, but not a threatening one, compared to Hannibal Lecter or the maniac from Maniac. Kai is, in a way, a personification of the virus, which searches for power and immortality through the devastation of other life forms, not realizing his actions will eventually lead to his own extinction.

Together, the gore and Wong hold together a remarkable modern piece of exploitation, with an honesty that most of its contemporaries do not dare to show, but which also demands the right mood, otherwise it feels cheap. In either case, see a schrink if this turns you on.

Somewhere, this tasteless, trashy, over the top, gleefully perverse Hong Kong Cat 3 masterpiece is flying off the shelves. Anthony Wong may be best known as the villain in Hard Boiled or Untold Story, but for sheer sleazy glory, this one is in a category all by itself. Without giving too much away, after he rapes his boss's wife, then kills her and his boss, lowly cook flees to Africa. There is a massive outbreak of ebola, so he and a buyer drive to an infected village to buy dead cows cheap. Blinded by lust, the cook jumps a corpse and catches the incurable. Only, instead of dying, he becomes a carrier. As soon as he realizes that, sharing time begins. Hong Kong bad boy director, Herman Yau, made many films like this, but this exploitative jewel is the best.

In Hong Kong in 1988 it was decided that they would have to have the Cat III category where the films were just too much with sex, horror or gore and had to stop children going in. The film began with Men Behind the Sun (1988) which is truly appalling and it might have been that the government must have not banned the film but maybe because the atrocities were committed by the Japanese they were happy to show it. Because there was a large audience and so came more films and the first big one was The Eight Immortals Restaurant: The Untold Story (1993) starring Anthony Chau-Sang Wong and directed by Tun-Fei Mou and which was a sensation. Later came Ebola Syndrome (1996) which also has much sex, horror and gore and also with humour. I find this rather difficult when the awful scenes are so terrible that we are supposed to laugh at rape and the mention of young children as well although we have to say that it is rather well made. I think that if we look at this as just a joke okay but unfortunately the amusement fades away and the terrible nasty scenes are still there.

I've always loved movies with Anthony Wong in them. Especially his cat 3 epics. Such as this obviously and the excellent untold story. In this Wong plays a lowly restaurant worker named Kai. Who's practically a slave. He gets all the lousy jobs. Wong like to have sex with his bosses wives though. This obviously doesn't go down very well when they find out so he moves job. In one instance when Kai is discovered practically raping the bosses wife, boss man is angry. He threatens to castrate Kai, things get out of hand and Kai ends up slaughtering his boss and his wife. Though not his daughter. Next we meet Kai 10 yeras later. Cutting up REAL frogs in grotesque detail. He is still the same low life restaurant worker, but he's moved. Anyway long story short Kai catches the ebola syndrome and becomes a carrier. I'm sure you can imagine what follows so I won't ruin it for you here. I'll just say that their are some scenes of extreme gore, although it never really feels disturbing as the scenes leading up to these events are always comedic. This is a fun film and definitely more of a gross out comedy than straight up horror. Whatever it is its great

This is the type of horror film the world seems to be seeing less and less of nowadays. Pure Evil, Pure Gore, Unrelentless in its delivery and damn entertaining all the way through.

A geeza catches ebola, he's immune to the effects and is just a carrier, he spreads it all over the place. thats is the basic outline of the plot. You need know no more to get the jist of it all.

This is a classy film all the way through, i love everything about it. The deaths are brutal and realistic looking. Its predictable as hell, but not even this can stop it from being a top film.

As a horror, this is almost as good as it can get. 10/10

Don't buy the hype because it doesn't live up to it! A restaurant employee wanted for murder contracts Ebola by raping a woman in South Africa and starts an outbreak there and in Hong Kong when he returns home. One of the bleakest films I have seen in a long time. All characters are unhappy souls, surviving in a grim world, unable to improve their lot, prone to an almost genetically determined urge to mess things up. Worse, these characters were walking cardboards. From an artistic standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story, which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them at the end of the day!

Herman Yau's "Ebola Syndrome" is a gruesome Hong Kong horror in the tradition of "Bunman:The Untold Story" and "Dr.Lamb".Anthony Wong is incredible as Kai San-he is one of the most depraved characters I have ever seen.Still the tone of the film isn't really disturbing-"Ebola Syndrome" can be very humorous at times.However if you're squeamish don't watch this one-there is torture,rape,dismemberment,masturbation with pork product,cannibalism and plenty of heavy violence on display.The plot is simple:Wong plays a deranged serial killer who flees Hong Kong after committing multiple murders and ends up contracting the Ebola Virus during his brief hideout in Africa.After murdering several people in Africa he returns to Hong Kong with some stolen money to start all over again.But now he is the Ebola carrier and he is spreading deadly virus...Overall,"Ebola Syndrome" doesn't quite live up to "Bunman:The Untold Story",however fans of extreme cinema should be pleased.

A depraved murderer gets a job at a Chinese restaurant, gets ebola, and becomes a super spreader, causing mayhem all over the world.

Ebola Syndrome might be one of the sickest and nastiest films I've ever seen and some of the acts depicted in this can't even be put into words. The lead character is truly disgusting, but the film itself is so over the top that you might find yourself laughing at times in between winces.

Well, if you take the 1995 American movie "Outbreak" then up the craziness by 50%, then you have the 1996 Hong Kong movie "Yi boh lai beng duk" (aka "Ebola Syndrome").

And of course there is not a shadow of a doubt that writer Ting Chau was cashing in on the success of "Outbreak", especially given the similarities between the two movies and the fact that they were just 1 year apart. But at the same time, writer Ting Chau managed to set "Yi boh lai beng duk" apart from "Outbreak", as the Hong Kong movie went over the top.

The storyline told in "Yi boh lai beng duk", as written by Ting Chau, was for the most part actually interesting enough. The movie derailed a couple of times along the course, but for the most part then director Herman Yau did manage to churn out of an enjoyable enough movie.

Oddly enough, then I haven't gotten around to watch "Yi boh lai beng duk" before now in 2022, despite of having the chance to do so a couple of times since it was initially released. I must admit that it was because I wasn't a particular fan of lead actor Anthony Chau-Sang Wong when I was younger, but that has definitely changed with time.

"Yi boh lai beng duk" is by no means a milestone in Hong Kong cinema, and the movie was watchable enough for the cheesy and campy rip off of "Outbreak" that it was. The movie is, however, suitable only for a single viewing, as the contents to the storyline just doesn't really have what it takes to support more than a single viewing.

The movie has not only Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, but also Miu-Ying Chan and Fui-On Shing. So there are some familiar faces to those well-traversed in the Hong Kong cinema.

Ultimately, then I was adequately entertained by "Yi boh lai beng duk", though it wasn't an outstanding movie experience. So I hadn't been missing out on much.

My rating of "Yi boh lai beng duk" lands on a five out of ten stars.