Zombiepura

This oddly titled film begins with an army reservist by the name of "Kayu Tan" (Alaric Tay) having to serve his required military obligation at a remote training site. Being rather selfish and lazy he quickly captures the attention of his superior non-commissioned officer "Sergeant Lee Siao On" (Benjamin Heng) who has his own issues trying to emulate his father "Sergeant Major 'Mad Dog' Lee" (Richard Lee) who just happens to be the senior non-commissioned officer of the regiment. Needless to say, the relationship between these two young men becomes even more strained when a zombie outbreak occurs at the camp and Sergeant Lee is left in charge of the extremely small number of uninfected soldiers--along with an attractive female named "Xiao Ling" (Joypink Lai)--which he is obligated to lead out of harm's way. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was one of those movies that tries too hard to fuse two separate sub-genres (in this case a zombie-comedy with an anti-military farce) in order to generate some humor. The problem is that--other than the presence of Joypink Lai--there isn't anything here that even remotely caught my eye. And even then, she wasn't capable of transforming this film into a successful comedy on her own. In short, this was an exceedingly dull comedy and I have rated it accordingly.

Right, well as I stumbled upon the 2018 Singaporean zombie movie "Zombiepura", of course I had to watch it. No doubt about it, as it was a combination of two of my favorite things; Asian cinema and zombie genre.

Sure, I hadn't heard about "Zombiepura" from writer and director Jacen Tan, prior to sitting donw to watch it. But I figured I would give the movie a fair chance regardless, so of course I opted to watch it.

And while I did manage to get through all 85 minutes of the movie, I have to say that I wasn't particularly entertained, much less impressed with what transpired on the screen. Not only was the script a very bland and generic script, even for a zombie movie. But I will say that the movie actually felt rather redundant and pointless. The script just didn't offer anything that hadn't already been done or seen in other zombie movies, and the whole storyline was just flaccid.

I haven't watched a whole lot of Singaporean movies, so I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. However, I must admit that I didn't care one ounce about the characters or whatever fate befell them. In fact, I couldn't even give you the name of a single character in the movie just as the end credits started to roll, the whole character gallery was that generic and bland.

Visually then "Zombiepura" was adequate. You're not in for a grand spectacle of special effects or zombie make-up. In fact, it was pretty low-key zombie special effects, well, make-up actually if you look at it. But it worked well enough given the whole concept and feel of the movie.

I do like zombie things, but not everything in the genre is pure gold, and "Zombiepura" was far from being golden.

My rating of "Zombiepura" lands on a generous two out of ten stars. At least director Jacen Tan took an attempt at the zombie genre here.

Love the movie for it is pure entertainment value... there were lots of zombies that looked really liked zombies, there were more than sufficient jokes about bits of Singaporean life that most Singaporean movie goers can relate to, there was a cast which I can recognize, etc... It was an easy movie to watch!

Seriously I thought the acting was pretty good - my favorite characters were Siao On and Kayu. Benjamin (Siao On) was playing a solder in command and this is a part that he should be very familiar with. Alaric (Kayu) was also very convincing as the geeky solder looking for an easy way out of his reservist duties. On the whole, the other characters were interesting but I sensed that they need more time or scenes for character development.

Personally, I would have loved a bit more twist and turns to the plot but I wondered if this was a top order in the relatively short time frame. Other horror movies from Korea & USA this season were at least 20% longer. I believed that was why I went to the cinema expecting to be frightened by Zombie horror movie but came out with a big smile on my face in the end. :D

Quick Quick... Go watch it for yourself. Chow Chi funny!!!

After years of un-relentlessly bad, throwaway comedies from "Singapore's very own Michael Bay", Jack Neo and especially his propaganda filled, offensive and severely degrading series of turds about life as a Singaporean soldier, we finally got a comedy that takes the Singaporean soldier life into more varied territories. Albeit, still following the comedic route.

From its title alone one can figure out that "Zombiepura" is more than just a comedy that takes place in the confinements of an army base and centered on a group of soldiers. It decides to spice things up by bringing the undead into the mix. It is an ingenious idea. There has been a recent rise of comedies in the zombie genre with many of them relying on the absurdity of the ideal of the walking dead and spoofing it with great effect. From, Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead" to Ruben Fleischer's "Zombieland", the zombie comedy genre works, for the most part. Of course, that's not to say that there isn't any serious zombie entertainment, just look at the melodramatic, never ending "Walking Dead" series.

Placing the undead into a Singaporean context is a refreshing move. Being a densely populated country, zombies would really mess us up easy. That is what I didn't get. Why was it only limited to an army camp? It's called Zombiepura not Zombietekong. Oh well, must be budget issues. When I heard about the fact that the film is taking place in an army camp, a wave of preconceived disdain and disgust from the aforementioned, "Ah Boys to Men" films swept over me. I couldn't help but go in thinking, oh no it's going to be another comedy diarrhea that makes our army looks worse than it actually is. Thank god, it isn't as bad as I thought and it even managed to surprise the heck out of me.

Don't get me wrong "Zombiepura" has made the same pitfalls as the revolting Jack Neo comedies. The characters are not real but caricatures of society. There is that forced empathy that director-writer, Jacen Tan, wants us to exude for them. There is even a babe character resemblance of a Michael Bay female lead that is only there for eye candy. Seriously though, that's how unprogressive a country like Singapore is. The comedy is low bro type of humor that is made by Singaporeans, meant for Singaporeans and appeases the general public that could stand the Jack Neo movies. The plot is generically trashy and the tone just changes during plot points.

But hey, I have to admit unlike other Singaporean films, I had fun with the escapism elements in "Zombiepura". This is due to the fact, I could tell Jacen's love for movies and zombies. He has placed subtle hints and homages to other, albeit significantly greater zombie movies out there. The film fan in me rejoices and appreciates them. There's also a self-awareness to the movie which I enjoyed greatly. It knows it is stupid. It knows it is satirical. Well, at least I hope. Some of the comedy works for me providing a few good chuckles but that's among trudging through the lacklustre bits. The zombie parts of the film were also quite decently crafted. Although, I feel the PG13 rating is a cheap out, Jacen pushed it to the limit with the amount of blood. The acting across the board, is also quite good, despite the generic writing.

Overall, is it a step in the right direction for Singapore? Not really but I would consider it to be a baby step as the idea is there. The execution could have been less crowd pleasing and bolder. I am pleasantly surprised by the level of enjoyment I had during the 85 mins of the movie. It went by way faster than expected. I would consider this to be a huge guilty pleasure. So, for those of you out there who are as skeptical as me. Give it a watch and you will receive somewhat of a fun time, although a very forgettable one.

I cant speak mandarin but I enjoyed just the same.