Produced by Angus Chan, Clement Cheng
Written by Nick Cheuk,
Nero Ng, Chi Hoi Pang
Directed by Alan Lo
Starring Michael Ning, Louis Cheung,
Carrie Ng, Alex Man, Cherry Ngan,
Venus Wong, Angie Shum
Lung and Chi-Yeung are geeky friends who fancy themselves heroes in their own minds, strongly identifying with the protagonists of their favorite anime.
In reality, neither has been able to win over their respective dream girls, Lung’s dad just got out of jail and Lung wants nothing to do with him, Lung’s Auntie is constantly depressed and things just seem to work out like they do in their favorite superhero stories.
Inexplicably, the main villain from the anime – a giant, chicken-like monster – appears in their city and begins spreading a virus which causes people to turn into zombies.
With friends and family and their own lives in danger, Lung and Chi-Yeung decide that, despite their fear and inadequacies, they must step up to save the people they care about and perhaps become heroes in the process.
Taking a cue from the male fantasy premise of Shaun of The Dead – the man-child proving his worth to friends and family by rescuing them from rampant zombies – Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight, for most of its running time, and despite a few original quirks (that chicken creature, for one), feels fairly routine.
The opening half hour or so felt very slow to me, as I wasn’t exactly sucked into these guys’ world.
Typically combining goofy slapstick with heartfelt pathos, this is another eclectic yet overall rote HK genre flick.
That being said, Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight did eventually grow on me. If I hadn’t had to review it, I likely would have turned it off around the 45 minute mark, but I’m glad to have stuck it out. The guys – and their family and love interests – become more interesting and develop more rooting interest as the film goes on, and there are some oddball moments that stick out (the chicken-creature’s weapon of choice: toxic eggs).
The effects are mostly quite good, the performances appealing, the action unspectacular but adequate. The film never really rises above the usual zombie fare to the heights of Shaun of The Dead or Happiness of The Katakuris, but it still has its qualities.
The ending, while unsuccessful in my view, does get points for ambition and aiming for a philosophical as opposed to logical explanation. Call it a cop-out if you will, but I applaud the effort to bring the theme full-circle, even if it doesn’t quite work.
Tired as the zombie sub-genre may be, there seems to always be a movie that finds its own voice (The Girl With All The Gifts being a sterling recent example). Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight, alas, doesn’t transcend the sub-genre with aplomb, but it does a decent job of trying to be at least a little bit different.
Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight is now available On Demand.
