Zombiepura

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.

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!!!

It's every reservist national serviceman's worst nightmare: what if you book in and due to undead-related shenanigans, never book out? This is the premise of the horror comedy Zombiepura.

Kayu Tan (Alaric Tay) isn't taking his reservist duty seriously, much to the chagrin of his overzealous sergeant Lee Siao On (Benjamin Heng). Kayu and his friend Tazan (Haresh Tilani) feign illness, in the grand tradition of national servicemen malingering to avoid going on duty. At the infirmary, Kayu and Siao On discover that their fellowmen servicemen have turned into rabid zombies. The pair must get along to survive, and must also rescue canteen operator Susie (Chen Xiuhuan) and her daughter Xiao Ling (Joeypink Lai). People will get bitten, obstacle courses will be navigated, and hopefully, ideas will be awoken as the ragtag gang try to reach the outside world and get to safety.

Zombiepura is a film that was announced in 2011 and has taken seven years to come to fruition. This reviewer has always wanted to see more mainstream genre fare, with the ability to travel, come out of Singapore. Singapore films are perceived as being either highbrow Cannes contenders or Chinese New Year fare aimed at uncles and aunties in the heartland. On paper, Zombiepura seems to occupy this middle ground. While the effort behind making a film like this is evident, the execution leaves plenty to be desired.

The film finds itself 14 years late to the Shaun of the Dead bandwagon, with characters that are nowhere near as endearing as those in Edgar Wright's zom-com, nor jokes that are anywhere near as funny. It's a lot closer to Scout's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.

A lot of Zombiepura hinges on the local context, being set in an army camp. There are in-jokes about the banality of reservist duty and the characters are all roughly stock types, that can be easily described with one line on the poster. Plenty of the humour is crass, and audiences are meant to laugh at a soldier pretending to have depression to dodge duty. This is to say nothing of the film's flagrant misogyny - the female lead is referred to almost exclusively as 'chiobu', Hokkien for hot chick, and nobody finds this inappropriate.

The premise is relatively clever in that containing the film within an army camp limits the scope, so the movie is not obligated to show expensive scenes of city streets overrun with zombies, World War Z-style. There are several physical comedy gags that work, notably one involving two characters scrambling up a flagpole with the zombies standing at the base grasping at their feet. The zombies' specific weakness, while nothing ground-breaking, is good for a chuckle. The makeup effects, overseen by June Goh, are serviceable, and there is a healthy amount of blood and gore.

Horror films are often excellent vehicles for allegorical messages. Train to Busan astutely commented on South Korea's hierarchical pressure-cooker society, and one of the original zombie movies, George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, was a satire on burgeoning consumerism in America. Zombiepura half-heartedly attempts something roughly along these lines, equating the zoned-out way bored servicemen go about their patrol duty with the mindlessness of your average zombie. However, the film doesn't push the socio-political commentary as far as this reviewer would've liked, but to be honest, nobody was expecting that of this particular film anyway.

Stars Alaric Tay and Benjamin Heng, who form the production company JAB Films with director Jacen Tan, work well opposite each other. There's not very much to either character, and they're difficult to root for. Naturally, there is a modicum of character development as the gravity of their predicament hits them. This is to say nothing of the on-the-nose names like Kayu and Siao On. Richard Low cameos as Siao On's father Mad Dog, a Regimental Sergeant Major. The implication is that Siao On is desperate to live up to his father's reputation, but this aspect of the character doesn't get enough play.

Joeypink Lai, Miss Universe Singapore 2016 finalist and realtor, functions purely as eye candy and little else. The Xiao Ling character has no complexities, and when she figures in a would-be emotional scene, there is no impact at all. Chen Xiuhuan is Lai's onscreen mother, who is similarly objectified, albeit not to the extent Lai is.

Rayve Zen's Chua, who initially seems harmless but becomes more villainous as the film goes on, is arguably the most interesting character in the film. It is in depicting his self-centredness that the film gets anywhere in the Train to Busan zone. Haresh Tilani of Ministry of Funny fame gets a small role as kind of a sidekick to Kayu, who disappears once Kayu and Siao On team up.

It is exceedingly difficult to get a movie made in Singapore, let alone a genre movie requiring stunts, permits, special effects and specialised location work. The thing is, Zombiepura easily could've been a better, smarter, funnier and cannier movie without any additions to the budget. It doesn't cost anything to not constantly objectify the female lead or outright mock mental illness. It's ironic that one of the film's sponsors is grocer Taste, since Zombiepura is sorely lacking in taste. Then again, one might argue that tasteless is exactly what a zombie movie would be. We'd hesitate to call this 'encouraging' for the industry, but in some technical aspects, perhaps it is a stagger/hobble in roughly the right direction.

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.

Dunno why this received a 7.6 rating. The most awful zombie movie I have ever seen. Singapore, I know you can do better than that.