Bio Zombie

Wilson Yip (1998, Hong Kong)

Cast: Jordan Chan, Sam Lee, Emotion Cheung, Yiu-Cheung Lai, Frankie Chan

Plot:
A dealer from a company producing bio-chemicals substances drinks from a soda bottle containing some of the dangerous substance. As two young VCD sellers (Woody Invincible and Crazy Bee) from a local mall are returning to the mall with their bosses' car, they hit the man. Unsure of what to do, they bring the man back to the mall with them (in the trunk). The mall closes, the man turns into a zombie and soon there are zombies everywhere! Woody, Crazy, some girls they're trying to hit on and other mall employees must bond together to try and fight their way out. Meanwhile, a poor geek in love with one of the girls ends up a zombie but unlike the other zombies, he has some small residual memory of his living past, so he's still in love with the girl and tries to make her love him. Unfortunately for him, how is a young chick to love a zombie with pimples big as a thumb spreading on half his face. Poor geek-zombie won't give up though, and eventually ends up being eaten by the other zombies, while helping his loved one and Woody to escape the infested place.

Appreciation: 9/10
This is a strange but very funny cross-over of Dawn of the dead, Brain Dead, Bill & Ted's great adventures and a video game, served "à la Hong Kong".
It starts out as a totally silly light-hearted comedy. The story is silly. The acting is silly. The dialogues are silly. The dubbing sounds silly (I saw the dubbed version). Hell even the gore is silly! It may take you a little time getting used to that asian sillyness (that is, if you're not familiar with it), but it's well worth it.
Woody Invincible and Crazy Bee, two "cool dude" bozos are totally ludicrous trying to look cool, so much that you can't help but feel sympathy for them. Same goes for the rest of the young cast. The beginning is a bit slow, but once the zombies start spreading, the actors grow more & more "serious" in their acting while the rest of the movie gets wild and hectic. The evolution of the characters is actually very interesting, from the 2 dudes, the dudettes (their female counter-parts), to the poor geek-zombie.
Believe it or not, by the end it's a mélange of gore, videogame action and touching moments (no kidding, really!) I almost shed a tear for the poor zombie lad, or for Crazy who's so afraid of turning into a zombie. Bob from "Day of the dead" was the only zombie to come close to being as touching. The few gore scenes as well as the videogame winks are are very entertaining.
I haven't had that much fun watching a zombie movie for a freaking long time. Don't get yourself fooled by the slow start. Once it starts picking up, you won't stop laughing your ass off.

Other suggestions: Dawn of the dead, Brain dead, Wild Zero, The Convent