Baat sin faan dim ji yan yuk cha siu baau (1993)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Directors:

Danny Lee
Herman Yau

Writer:

Law Kam Fai (writer)

Release Date:

13 May 1993 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Cops investigate a criminal running an unsuspecting restaurant, while trying to trace the steps back to how he ended up running it suddenly.

Plot Keywords:

Restaurant | Police | Beach | Torture | Murder

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Emily Kwan	...	Bo
Danny Lee	...	Officer Lee
Julie Lee	...	Pearl
Tony Leung Siu Hung
Fui-On Shing	...	Cheng Poon
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang	...	Wong Chi Hang
Parkman Wong	...	Bull

Also Known As:

Ba xian fan dian zhi ren rou cha shao bao (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Bunman: The Untold Story
Human Meat Pies: The Untold Story
Human Pork Chop (USA)
The Eight Immortals Restaurant: The Untold Story (USA)
The Untold Story (Hong Kong: English title)
The Untold Story: Human Meat Roast Pork Buns

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

English | Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Taiwan:R-18 | Singapore:(Banned) (uncut version) | Australia:R | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) (cut version) | Hong Kong:III | Singapore:PG (heavily cut) | South Korea:18 (heavily cut) | USA:Unrated | Norway:(Banned) (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Cinema City Film Productions

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the family massacre scene, one of the children is decapitated, but the "head" is clearly fake. First when it drops down from the table it looks a lot bigger and doesn't have colored eyes (they have the same skin-coloring effect). And secondly when we see the whole room, the head on the floor looks almost pale-white. It's really white actually, and that's weird because the family was "slightly dark" skinned.

Quotes:

[after realizing that Wong used human flesh to make the pork buns]
Officer Lee: I'm glad I didn't have any of those.

Movie Connections:

References King Kong (1933)

One of the most disturbing movies I've seen

My wife and I saw this movie recently, and I am still creeped out by it. To put this in perspective, we watch movies like Henry Portrait of a serial killer, and Thief, Cook, Wife and Her Lover all the time. None of those movies had the same impact on me as this one. I don't know if it is knowing this was a true story, or the intensity of the killers acting, but this movie draws you into the story and makes you watch as a helpless bystander.

I think the best thing the movie does is show how homicidal maniacs have Jeckle/Hide personalities. The movie never paints the killer with the same broad strokes it unfortunately paints the rest of the cast. There are scenes where I found myself feeling sorry for him, times where he looked like people I know, and times where I could almost like him. The police aren't painted as the heros in the white hats either. Most of them are less likeable than the killer. The whole movie has the feeling like your quiet uncle Joey just murdered your whole family right in front of you.

We did watch the un-cut not rated version, so I don't know what the theatrical release is like.