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Bunman: The Untold Story
DVD/APPROX. 95 MINS/1993/JAPAN UNRATED
DVD/APPROX. 95 MINS/1993/JAPAN UNRATED
4
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Anthony Wong plays mad restaurant owner Wong Chi Hang in one of the most notorious CAT 3 films. Based on true events this film delivers some
real nasty scenes of violence, and I mean real nasty…
The film starts off with the star of the movie Wong who beats a restaurant owner to death over a game of Mahjong before setting him alight with
petrol. Rotting body parts are discovered eight years later washed up on the beach in Macao the cops are called and their investigations lead to
the Eight Immortals Restaurant and owner Wong who now has ownership of the place under suspicious circumstances. With the police receiving
letters requesting inquests in to missing family members that worked at The Eight Immortals who have all disappeared without trace Wong is
eventually arrested but denies everything, now thrown into prison with one of the relatives of the family and almost tortured into giving his
confession, Bunman is very badly beaten by the inmates and tries to prove his innocence.
If you haven’t heard of Bunman: The Untold Story before, which most people have I am sure you could think that after reading the above the film
is a regular crime story, and whilst I thought that very little happened in about the first quarter to give its reputation once the killing starts its
some of the most shocking stuff I have seen in a film, a lot of the film unnecessarily gives up its time to the team of bungling cops and in particular
the female cop who has to deal with many of the sexist comments by her male team mates, the only serious cop seems to me the teams chief who
takes the investigations quite seriously, although this would seem somewhat out of place makes for a welcome break from ‘Bunmans’ activities.
Bunman gets his name from carving up his victims and mincing them into pork buns or ‘Bao’ which are selling very quickly in his restaurant, when
the cops come he sweet talks them with free buns, only later on do the cops actually find out they are eating the people they are trying to find.
There are two scenes in this film that really stood out, and I don’t mean in a good way, days later after watching Bunman they are still on my mind
and even though I enjoy horror stuff even I found these scenes very disturbing and depressing. Not to give too much away as plot spoilers but
read any review of these films and they will mention the words chopsticks and children. I’m referring to the raping of the female restaurant worker
by Wong, a real unpleasant scene in any film but his way of killing her by ramming a handful of chopsticks into her vagina is really sick. Probably the
most hard to take scene in bunman is the slaughter of young children, its unclear how old they are but at a guess maybe 5-6, its really hard to
take in and I have not seen anything like this before nor do I wish to again. Near the end of the film Wong confesses to the murder of the family
and we get to see what happened to them all, the bit I'm referring to is where Wong chops up the children in turn using his cleaver, they all are
clearly terrified and who wouldn’t be.
Clearly Bunman will not be a film for everyone, whilst it’s very powerful and shocking as it was made to be it left a really bad taste in my mouth,
with the fact that it actually based on true events makes it even more disturbing. Anthony Wong is well cast as the Bunman, he really does look
psychotic and I’m yet to see him in another role, let’s hope he’s not like this in real life! Unfortunately I can’t say wow what a great film I really
enjoyed this, Bunman is a very well made film, it was made to shock and disturb and it really does what it says on the box. I’m glad I can say I
have seen Bunman, but I don’t really want to say I’m the proud owner of it!
real nasty scenes of violence, and I mean real nasty…
The film starts off with the star of the movie Wong who beats a restaurant owner to death over a game of Mahjong before setting him alight with
petrol. Rotting body parts are discovered eight years later washed up on the beach in Macao the cops are called and their investigations lead to
the Eight Immortals Restaurant and owner Wong who now has ownership of the place under suspicious circumstances. With the police receiving
letters requesting inquests in to missing family members that worked at The Eight Immortals who have all disappeared without trace Wong is
eventually arrested but denies everything, now thrown into prison with one of the relatives of the family and almost tortured into giving his
confession, Bunman is very badly beaten by the inmates and tries to prove his innocence.
If you haven’t heard of Bunman: The Untold Story before, which most people have I am sure you could think that after reading the above the film
is a regular crime story, and whilst I thought that very little happened in about the first quarter to give its reputation once the killing starts its
some of the most shocking stuff I have seen in a film, a lot of the film unnecessarily gives up its time to the team of bungling cops and in particular
the female cop who has to deal with many of the sexist comments by her male team mates, the only serious cop seems to me the teams chief who
takes the investigations quite seriously, although this would seem somewhat out of place makes for a welcome break from ‘Bunmans’ activities.
Bunman gets his name from carving up his victims and mincing them into pork buns or ‘Bao’ which are selling very quickly in his restaurant, when
the cops come he sweet talks them with free buns, only later on do the cops actually find out they are eating the people they are trying to find.
There are two scenes in this film that really stood out, and I don’t mean in a good way, days later after watching Bunman they are still on my mind
and even though I enjoy horror stuff even I found these scenes very disturbing and depressing. Not to give too much away as plot spoilers but
read any review of these films and they will mention the words chopsticks and children. I’m referring to the raping of the female restaurant worker
by Wong, a real unpleasant scene in any film but his way of killing her by ramming a handful of chopsticks into her vagina is really sick. Probably the
most hard to take scene in bunman is the slaughter of young children, its unclear how old they are but at a guess maybe 5-6, its really hard to
take in and I have not seen anything like this before nor do I wish to again. Near the end of the film Wong confesses to the murder of the family
and we get to see what happened to them all, the bit I'm referring to is where Wong chops up the children in turn using his cleaver, they all are
clearly terrified and who wouldn’t be.
Clearly Bunman will not be a film for everyone, whilst it’s very powerful and shocking as it was made to be it left a really bad taste in my mouth,
with the fact that it actually based on true events makes it even more disturbing. Anthony Wong is well cast as the Bunman, he really does look
psychotic and I’m yet to see him in another role, let’s hope he’s not like this in real life! Unfortunately I can’t say wow what a great film I really
enjoyed this, Bunman is a very well made film, it was made to shock and disturb and it really does what it says on the box. I’m glad I can say I
have seen Bunman, but I don’t really want to say I’m the proud owner of it!
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| "Based, on True Events in Hong Kong" |
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