The Untold Story (Herman Yau, 1993)
"Even if she had a mastectomy, hers would still be bigger than yours!"
Ohhh how we all laughed (wipes tear from eye). Hong Kong humour is farcical, slapstick and in this case -please see the quote above- very crass indeed. But crass is probably fitting for The Untold Story, a mid-nineties category 3 film from Hong Kong.
'Based on a true story' (it says here), The Untold Story is set in a Macau, specifically in a restaurant called 'The eight immortals', the so-called owner of which 'Wong Chi Hang', has begun acting very suspiciously.
'A sit happens, Wong Chi Hang' is a brutal, sadistic killer, and has a unique penchant for killing his staff and serving them up as delicious barbeque pork buns. Yummy. The scenes of torture, rape and murder are particularly gruesome, hence the Category 3 rating in Hong Kong, and the variety of censored versions released worldwide.
Sure enough, through a series of letters, leads and limbs, the cops end up hot on his trail, and the investigation into 'Wong Chi Hang' is led by pimp-like Officer Lee (played by Danny Lee), who is almost always accompanied by an array of sexy hookers! The 'dumb-cops' element of the film provides slapstick humour, which is used to balance out the scenes of extreme, bloody violence, torture and rape. Classic Hong Kong film-making!
Anyhoo, the second part of the film centres on the cops attempting to get a confession from 'Wong Chi Hang', and as the torture increases, the humour dies out completely, as does most of the cast.
The Untold Story was in desperate need of a nice, shiny uncut Blu-ray presentation, and lo and behold, USA label unearthed films have just released this beauty in time for Hallowe'en 2020. Bravo! Especially as the old uncut Tai Seng DVD release from 1996 was in bad shape!
The brutish, uncompromising violence Untold Story serves up is only for the hardest of stomachs, and it's fair to say that the film -with all it's misplaced humour- is a genuine oddity. I strongly urge all vegetarians to watch it. And people who drink their own wee wee.
Although extreme, the film is enjoyable. Anthony Wong's central performance is very good and entirely unsympathetic. In fact, he won the best actor gong in the 1993 Hong Kong film awards! This region-free Blu-ray release has decent subtitles, good image quality and some nice extras. Let's hope this leads to more Category 3 HK releases (Ebola syndrome anyone?)
