User reviews

With the two main characters characters named Woody Invincible and Crazy Bee, and the love interest named Rolls... how can a movie fail?

A lovelorn zombie sushi chef, a neglectful husband and a spiteful, yet faithful wife, two bumbling thieves, and a couple of beauty salon workers, Bio Zombie's cast is full of great characters; all that are played convincingly. Combined with a great script, Bio Zombie provides ample entertainment.

A hilarious spin on an age-old premise, Bio-Zombie is a comedy disguised as a zombie movie. Amazing dialog, impractical events, and great lead actors, this movie definitely delivered. The perfect bad horror movie.

7/10

It's been a number of years since I last watched this late 90's Hong Kong horror-comedy from director Wilson Yip; the very same man behind mage-hits SPL and the Ip Man series with Donnie Yen. In only his thrid year as a director, Yip delivers a fun zombie comedy that taps on (then popular) Hong Kong youth culture, as well as pay homage to the infamous Dawn Of The Dead from Romero...

Woody (Jordan Chan) and Bee (Sam Lee) play a couple of small-time triads who run a VCD store in the busy, New Trend shopping arcade. They go about their lives, harassing some female staff at the local beauty parlour, one of which is Angela Tong who they decide to rob in the toilets, and have fun annoying a cell-phone salesman by drooling over his wife and calling him ugly. Of course, its obvious that this lot are going to have to team up when the s**t hits the fan!

Somewhere else, a dodgy deal for a bio-weapon goes wrong. An injured gangster makes a run for it, carrying a dose of the dangerous liquid in a soft drinks bottle, soon getting into an accident that leads him to the two friends. After feeding him the bio-chemical to hydrate him, Woody and Bee bring the man back to New Trend in the boot of his car. Of course, from here, the horror side of the film kicks in. It doesn't take long for the undead to start taking over the mall, with sushi chef Loi (played by Emotion Cheung) becoming one of the first victims. Loi is madly in love with Rolls (Angela Tong) and even in zombie form, keeps her prisoner for as long as he can, providing her with gifts and protecting her from other zombies.

Bio Zombie may often feel slow until the initial zombie attack, throwing its viewers off for a bit before jumping between horror, comedy and drama as if harking back to the crazed Hong Kong films of the eighties. While the make-up can often be crass, the film often comes across as an independent zombie film, reminding me of my own at times - although we most certainly didn't have the budget these guys would have. There is gore and blood, but just not enough, with limbs and heads getting chopped off as the small team of shop keepers try to survive. A lot of this is accompanied by some fun comedy sequences, akin to that of the 80's horror-comedies like Mr. Vampire and Haunted Cop Shop. But as the film rolls on, Bio Zombie takes a more serious tone for its last 20 minutes, leading to an ending that may surprise some viewers - but ultimately, makes sense from the characters perspective. On this Mei Ah release, there is a short alternate ending. They both point to the same thing at the end of the day, but one is based on choice and the other not so much...

Fun, although not without its flaws, Wilson Yip's Bio Zombie is worth a watch for fans of Hong Kong cinema and of the undead. While it may be played for laughs the majority of the time, it does have some nice dramatic moments that are well balanced throughout and makes a great addition to the zombie genre. It has been described by many as Mallrats meets Dawn Of The Dead, but I think it has something a little more than that!

Overall: A little flat in production value compared to today's glossy standards, but Bio Zombie is a lot of fun and entertains!

Should this movie be described as a Hong Kong take on Dawn of the Dead? No. Return of the Living Dead? No, certainly not. Mallrats with zombies? Sounds better.

The point of this movie is not to provide stark raving terror, deep social commentary, or five gallons of blood per second. This movie is fun. Follow the lives of a pair of small-time punks running a VCD shop, the likable Crazy Bee and the incredibly named Woody Invincible, as they try to get their boss's car and end up accidentally unleashing a zombie plague. Oops. But even before the first zombie shows up, the duo has gotten into some amusing scrapes and got out of them with bluster that for once is not unlikable. They may be jerks, but at least their the kind of jerks you can see yourself hanging out with.

When the zombies show up, the movie stays focused on Woody and Bee. It seems so wrong to say that this movie is character driven, but it is. Not it a dramatic sense, but in the sense that the characters and not the zombies are the main focus of the movie. That surprisingly doesn't hurt the film, as the interactions are definetly between our heroic duo and the zombies are generally amusing.

But the movie knows when to get serious. The last ten minutes or so switch from humor to seriousness (save one speech from Bee) suddenly and yet without missing a step. The last ten minutes seem to come from a "real" zombie movie and are filled with emotion and pathos. It's kind of startling, but it also fits.

All in all, I definetly recommend this movie. It is one of my favorites. Just go in expecting humor. Heck, it's best to go into the movie not knowing anything about it.

I sat down to watch "Sang faa sau see" (aka "Bio-Zombie") again in 2021, and that makes it the third time that I have seen it.

While "Bio-Zombie" is not your average zombie movie, there is something oddly and profoundly entertaining about it. Perhaps it is the fact that this is a horror comedy that involves zombies and it is mixed up with that archetypical vibe that Hong Kong movies had in the late 1990s. Whatever it is, it definitely works.

Sure, if you sit down to watch the 1998 "Bio-Zombie" with the hopes of being in for a serious and gory zombie movie, then you will be sorely disappointed. Indeed, because "Bio-Zombie" from writers Matt Chow, Man Sing So and Wilson Yip is a light hearted horror comedy that is sort of akin to "Shaun of the Dead" in some aspects, but actually managing to be very much different at the same time. Yeah, I know that "Shaun of the Dead" wasn't out before 6 years after this one, but they fall within the same category.

The zombie make-up and prosthetics in "Bio-Zombie" are low budget, very, very low budget. It looks unbelievably fake, and it doesn't even feel like the movie makers were even bothering to make it look realistic. But it somehow adds to the charm of the movie, especially since the make-up and special effects are so low key and low practical that is borders on being hilarious.

What makes "Bio-Zombie" work out great is the two lead performers, whom are Jordan Chan and Sam Lee. These two put on very enjoyable and memorable performances in this horror comedy, and they definitely were so well-casted for this particular movie from director Wilson Yip.

I suppose the fact that "Bio-Zombie" takes place inside an archetypical mall, as those you'd find all over Hong Kong, but very much archetypical for Mong Kok, then there is a nod towards George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" here.

If you enjoy the Hong Kong cinema, and if you enjoy horror comedies or zombie movies, then you most certainly should give "Bio-Zombie" a watch, provided you have the opportunity.

With having seen the movie three times, I can say that this is still a movie that proves entertaining and enjoyable after 23 years. My rating of "Bio-Zombie" lands on a six out of ten stars.

When you watch Bio Zombie its pretty damn obvious that Asian horror filmmakers are just as infatuated with Romeros zombie creations as we are.

The movie is about these two slacker looser types who work in a video store down at the local mall. While they are driving their bosses car from the auto shop they hit a strange man with a suit case containing a liquid that when ingested will turn anyone into raving flesh eating zombies. They mistake the liquid for a soda bottle, some one drinks it and the zombie fun begins.

The first half is just getting to know the characters so the actual zombie action doesn't begin right away, but the funny dialog and characters will keep you interested until the undead starts to roll in. The first half kind of feels like Mallrats with all these crazy young characters who's life depends on being in the mall for 95% of their lives. I mean we get to losers as leads (kind of like Jay and Silent Bob) we get the asshole who treats his girl like crap (like Ben Afflecks character in Mallrats), lets face it the influences from Kevin Smiths films on this one are also blatantly obvious.

The second half of the movie is when the zombies start to roll in. This half of the movie reminded me a lot of Romeros Dawn of the Dead and hey there's no denying that Romeros film was an obvious inspiration for this here flick. You know, zombies in a mall, people running and hiding from them in the stores. You know the drill.

What disappointed me a bit about this movie was its obvious lack of gore! I was expecting a blood bath, but no, surprisingly the movie showed a lot of restraint in this department. Could it have been because of its small budget? Or where there other reasons for the lack of the red stuff? I don't know, but after a while I was feeling a bit cheated. Not only that but the actual zombie make up wasn't all that great, sometimes you could see that it was just appliances glued to the actors faces...and that really really sucked for me. In fact its the worst part of the film. Hey! If your making a zombie movie, at least make the undead look cool! But the movie manages to award us with something else instead. We might not have cool looking zombies or buckets of blood and guts (the camera actually shys away from showing us the blood and guts on many occasions) but we get great characters! Woody and Bee are funny guys, they are lovable slackers and you'll be entertained by their funny situations and hilarious dialog.

The direction was inventive as well, there were some really cool shots in there that caught me off guard. Like for example, there were some visual references to the house of the Dead video game! Now before you go saying something about how Uwe Boll did it and it sucked (and you'd be right!), this director actually did it right! You have to see it to understand but it was very original. There were many other cool shots in the film that showed the director was creative with his shots.

All in all a fun zombie movie with great characters, but not enough gore. Think of it as Mallrats meats Dawn of the Dead and you'll have an idea of what your going to see! Rating: 3 out 5

Having recently gotten into the asian horror genre, I finally had a chance to watch this movie. Bio Zombie is original in the way it blends comedy, horror, action.....and it works!!

I really liked the transition the film. When you meet Woody Invincible and Crazy Bee, they are far from winning any moral awards. This provides so much humor especially their "tough" guy personas, so you naturally take a liking to the two. Follow that with crossing paths with a couple of gals including hottie babe Rolls, and you have really funny moments!! The way director Wilson Yip progresses the story, you find out about the characters and then he adds the deadly biochemical plot which takes the film to another level. It's not a horror film having you shut your eyes or watch through the cracks of your fingers, but you find yourself drawn into the story following the plight of our unlikely heroes.

VERY good chemistry between the cast. Jordan Lee (Woody) and Sam Lee (Bee) really seem like two buddies who get into all sort of trouble. Their personalities, facial expressions, mannerisms are all assets to their respective characters. Angela Tong Ying-Ying (Rolls) is good as well and flaunts her sex appeal very well! The bathroom scenes with her and Woody are hilarious! Even the Sushi guy plays a vital part!

Credit goes to Yip for giving a shopping mall a very unique and creepy look due to great cinematography. As more and more zombies appear, the twist from comedic entertainment shifts to "struggle to survive" entertainment. The great thing is this film doesn't take itself too seriously and it looks like they had a lot of fun shooting this film. Trust me, you'll have fun seeing it too.

Hong Kong takes on the zombie genre. BIO ZOMBIE is basically a remake of Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD, with characters trapped in a shopping mall infested with the living dead. The way the characters become trapped and the zombie infestation itself is different, and BIO ZOMBIE is more goofy slapstick than actual zombie gore film. Still, it manages to balance the drama of being stalked by flesh-eating killers and slapstick humor well enough not to be annoying.

A good take by Hong Kong, proving that the chinese probably has a better handle on this zombie thing more so than their Japanese counterpart, whose zombie films have been, well, really strange.

The ending hints at a possible sequel that is, sadly, hasn't appeared yet.

6 out of 10.

How much you enjoy the whole Bio--Zombie experience will depend a lot on how you fare in general with Hong Kong comedy, since there is as much, if not more, silliness in this film as there is splatter. Personally, I find the Asian sense of humour rather hard to get to grips with: there's way too much facial mugging and silly slapstick for my liking. And with this film featuring plenty of both, and also starring Sam Lee, one performer guaranteed to get on my nerves (there's just something about his face that annoys me), I found myself growing tired of proceedings pretty quickly.

Lee plays Crazy Bee, a no-good slacker who, along with his equally worthless pal Woody Invincible (Jordan Chan) runs a VCD shop in a mall; when the guys aren't ripping off their customers with dodgy pirated copies of Stephen Chow movies, they're cruising the mall looking for hot chicks and ways to make easy money.

Their carefree way of life comes to an end, however, when the mall becomes the centre of a zombie outbreak, and making a fast buck and scoring with women come second to avoiding being eaten by the undead.

Those viewers looking for a completely insane piece of Hong Kong horror will probably be fairly disappointed by Bio-Zombie: the first half of the film features next to no zombie action, preferring to concentrate on following our unlikeable heroes as they wander the mall, argue with sexist shop owner Kui (Yiu Cheung Lai), and try to win the affection of hot-pants wearing sexpot Rolls (the lovely Angela Tong); and the second half, in which the walking dead finally begin to wreak havoc, lacks the sense of outrageousness that can be found in so many other HK films.

Towards the end of Bio-Zombie, things start to get a little better as the few survivors fight a bloody (well, slightly bloody) battle against an ever growing number of flesh-eaters, but it all arrives too late in the day to rescue the film. Even a delightfully downbeat ending did little to change my overall opinion of the film: 5 out of 10—decidedly average!

Although not the standard zombie splat-fest which i had hoped for, I've gotta say I totally enjoyed this quirky little flick. Apparently made on a shoestring, the whacked out, neon dripping, Plaza setting offers an almost halucinatory overtone to the proceedings. The story throws a small group of young HK shopkeepers into a siege by the undead. Kind of plays as a combination of DOTD and Night of the demons, helped by a heavy dose of HK youth culture and comedy, very reminiscent of that in other HK comedy-horrors (Mr Vampire springs to mind.) Despite wanting a bloodbath, I couldn't help but to appreciate it for what it is - entertainment.

By no means up there with DOTD, The Beyond or any other of the slew of late 70's early 80's zombie cannibal chunk blowers - but still, more than enough of a breath of fetid air to keep zombie fans ticking over. To summarize - Great 90 mins worth. Not taxing on the mind. Entertaining characters (great subs!). But if you want gore - it's back to an umpteenth viewing of "The Beyond"... Well worth seeking out if you're looking for something different. Well, I liked it anyway...

this film is very funny and we should say that it is an horror-o-comedy. the film refers to George Romero "dawn of dead" and to the video game "house of the dead". Without a cent Wilson Wip tries to create a atmosphere which is strange and familiar. Some shots are totally amazing especially the one which shows every characters from the film like video game characters. The actors are good (for that kind of film i mean), Gordon Chan and Sam Lee are funny. Well ladies and gentlemen, you would be surprised by that U F O from HK cinema. i give it a 7/10

I actually purchased this DVD (complete with alternate ending) based upon the other reviews that are listed here. Whoops...

The best way to describe it would be to say that it is like a high school film class production with no scare value and effects that are not very special. I know... I know... the budget must have been very small - at least I can only assume this. However, this doesn't explain the endless amounts of boring dialogue that do nothing to forward the plot and winds up filling space between dull zombie attacks.

There are comparisons listed in this review section that say that this movie is the Hong Kong Return of the Living Dead, or worse, Dawn of the Dead. Not in my opinion. Not even close.

Don't get me wrong. There were some funny parts to this movie, but nothing that would merit it being more than a 20 minute edited version. Sure the lack of a budget may have made makeup effects hard, but not impossible - reference the first Evil Dead movie.

If you are looking for Asian zombie action, you may want to try something like Shiryour gari (Junk.) This one is from Japan, and is not spectacular, but is mindless zombie fun. Unfortunately, Bio-Zombie is just mindless.

Bio Zombie (aka."Sang dut sau shut") is one sucessful and pretty zany HK black comedy/horror film. The plot has to do with Crazy Bee and Woody having to own a VCD/DVD store, owned by the greedy Kui and his wife. Their hobbies in the mall (which seems to strangely be their home...) are chasing girls, going to arcades, cause trouble and eat. In the meantime, the government comes up with a sports biological weapon in disguise as a sports drink. The drinks turns people whom drink it into the living dead and the fun starts to begin.

There are also alot of decent special effects and rather different plot twists as well, but just to be nice, I WON'T spoil anything! Plus, Jordan Chan, Sam Lee and Angela Tong are very talented (as well as sexy!) This is one film of such a strange combo of genres that does not dissapoint.

This movie serves its purpose well enough, despite that it's an heavily flawed one.

The movie is being pretty simplistic. It purely relies on its main concept and there is not really any depth or development to be found in this movie, to its story or characters. This is a bit of a complaint, since the movie could had been a far better one, if it had taken itself a bit more serious.

Like so many Hong Kong genre movies, this one has plenty of humor in it. I would say that this movie is about 70% a comedy and only 30% a true horror. Not that its ever hilarious or truly clever and original with its comedy but it at least makes the movie a fun one to watch throughout.

Not too sure that the fans of horror and the zombie sub-genre in particular will be that pleased with this movie. It's being called Hong Kong's answer to George Romero's "Dawn Of The Dead" but this movie in all honesty comes never nowhere close to its level of excellence. It's just too simplistic and not serious enough for that, though on its own right this is definitely still a watchable, fun little movie.

If only the movie would had been a bit bigger they could had also done a bit more with its gore and zombies. It's now a fairly cheap looking movie, with cheap looking make-up effects and not quite enough gore and shock for a zombie movie really. There is gore and violence but most of this is happening off screen. Not sure if this was done because of budget reasons or if they actually wanted to go for a lower age rating. It's probably a combination of both.

But oh well, the movie does definitely not bore and is simply entertaining throughout. It therefore simply serves its purpose and means that this movie is a perfectly watchable one.

7/10

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This is a Hong Kong flick that has some fame due being a bit of an ode to Romero's Dawn Of The Dead (1978). But let me say that the only reference is the fact that it take place at a shopping mall, end of resemblance.

It's more of a comedy but one with extreme stupid situations. The effects used are also a bit of the cheap kind. The zombies their faces are so stupid, you can easily spot how it was done.

Nevertheless, it do has a few bloody situations. But let me say that most of it is just ridiculous. The so-called sex scene at the toilet will make you laugh as did the end scene when a guy is turning into a zombie he only can talk about the tits of his best friend's girlfriend.

Still, it didn't bore me and there's enough action to keep you attached to the screen. A classic it will never be but among the geeks it's well known.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 1,5/5

I don't know why, but the two borderline crooks consisting of Sam Lee and Jordan Chan is really funny in this movie. They're not trying to look funny, but different situations they find themselves in is.

Woody Invincible, and Crazy Bee are two characters that has no redeemable quality to speak of. They're going about their bumbling ways thinking that things are normal, when actually things can't be more wrong than it is.

This is a really great movie, and you need to see it to appreciate the humor of it all.

Sam Lee and Jordan Chan does a superb job of playing two characters who finds themselves in the middle of zombie outbreak. Especially Jordan Chan deserves an Oscar nomination for his outrageously cool and funny acting. Without the acting of Sam and Jordan, this movie wouldn't have been half as funny. Not just another zombie comedy, but something with a real kick in the pants. Recommended.

Okay now, let me start this off by saying that I'm a sucker for anything with the word zombie in it. And every time I come across another movie that has the word zombie even remotely associated with it I'll have to sit down and watch. Unfortunately, time and time again I am tricked, and find myself sitting in front of the TV being inflicted with the pain of yet another crap horror movie.

Often times I log onto IMDb and read these reviews in the hopes of getting a "heads up", and maybe stumbling upon some lost zombie gem of the film. Maybe and supercritical. When I read good reviews for a film such as this it only strengthens my doubt in my own opinions of the zombie genre.

The truth! This movie was bad. This movie was bad with a Chinese accent. Save your dollar, put on your old copy of "Night of the Living Dead", and order in some takeout.

Wow! A very good surprise! I thought I was going to get an average movie, but I'm really impressed, apart from the zombie look which is not great, the movie really succeeds in being a funny zombie movie with some good dramatic scenes, even if one of them is in my opinion messed up, I really enjoyed following this fight for survival of these characters.

Maybe 8/10 is an exaggeration, 7/10 might be more honest, but I really wish this movie would get out of the back and be seen by more people.

Once again, a real good surprise, if you liked shawn of the dead or other horror comedies, you won't be disappointed.

Although I am not a big fan of "Zom-Coms" (Zombie-Comedies) after seeing the high rating on IMDb I decided to give this one a try. Needless to say I found it to be more than a little disappointing for several reasons. First, it is my opinion that this particular sub-genre is a very difficult undertaking to begin with due to the simple fact that zombies are not typically "funny" and any comedy at their expense risks lessening their overall value--and subsequently that of the movie as a whole. Therefore, I believe that it is extremely important to have the audience invested in the main characters as their welfare or predicament is quite often the key to the entire film. Unfortunately, in this particular case the two main characters named "Woody Invincible" (Jordan Chan) and "Crazy Bee" (Sam Lee) were hardly worth any concern or sympathy as they were nothing more than mere street thugs. Perhaps if they had been "adorable losers" it might have changed things but as it was I certainly didn't care for them one way or the other. As a matter of fact, if anything the only characters of any interest was a mugging victim named "Rolls" (Angela Tong) and an abused wife named "Mrs. Kui" (Dorothy Elias-Fahn) due in part because of their unfortunate circumstances but also because but they both lent some nice scenery to an otherwise drab atmosphere. And then there was the awful decision to give ridiculous names to the characters like "Jelly" (Suk Yin Lai) and the aforementioned "Rolls". Quite frankly, I found this action to be both cheap and childish. Ditto the entire movie. Below average.

Well, i'm extremely pleased I saw this film when I had the chance. I managed to see it late one night on 'Film Four Extreme', not knowing what i'd be in for. I was expecting a cheap zombie effort that I would have to force myself to sit through. But I was wrong!

First of all I have not seen the newly 'dubbed' version of this film and do not wish to either. I have seen two different versions which different subtitles. The first was on 'Film four' which seemed to have been translated by someone british, I could tell because most of the slang was british. The other version of subtitiling is from the HK region 0 DVD and NOT the newly release US version of this film which I think has the dubbing. The DVD subtitling isn't great because some of it is translated very poorly, whereas the 'Film four' version of this is grammar perfect.

From the very opening shots of the film I actually found myself laughing! Could this be!? A horror film that is actually truly funny and isn't 'Return of the Living Dead'! Two characters called 'Crazy Bee' and 'Woody Invincible' work at a VCD shop in a neon like indoor mall, and accidently run into this person in their car which is inevitably a zombie. They take the body back to the mall in the trunk of their car only to release that its missing and starting all kinds of trouble in the mall. That's the basic plot from there without giving anything away. But I assure you, you'll find yourself laughing! There are some classic moments in it.

Now, for the Zombie genre horror people out there I still suggest checking this out. As far as I know there are few zombie films out there that seem to be able to work with comedy. A couple that spring to mind are 'Return of the Living Dead' and 'Brain Dead'. Although Bio Zombie may not be as good as either of these in effects, its still an equally great zombie film. There are minimal gore scenes and no truly amazing SFX but it doesn't let it's low budget appereance hurt the film at all. Still there are some great gore scenes, such as the 'tap in the face' where Bee jams a tap pipe into a zombies head and turns on the fawcett and blood comes out the end! Not to mention a scene with a drill in the mouth! There are good points to be had for the true zombie genre horror fan. If you do get the chance to see this on 'Film four' then I suggest you do, because this version of the subtitles are a lot better.

I got this the same time as The Dead Next Door. And while that film was putrid, this, done professionally, is even worse. I have a fondness for Hong Kong Cinema, but this doesn't fit into that niche. This is just one stupid idea piled on another, mixed with bad acting and silliness (it should be marketed as a comedy) set to boil and released upon an unsuspecting public. This entire film, from story, to effects to ending is just BAD, BAD, BAD! It wants to be HK's answer to Dawn of the Dead, instead it's more like Dawn of the Dumb. This is just one stupid film and if this message stops just one person from watching it - it's served its purpose! Avoid this at all costs and save some brain cells!