The Untold Story    The Untold Story

The Untold Story

AKA: Bunman

1993

Director: Herman Yau

Stars: Anthony Wong, Danny Lee

Based on true events, The Untold Story is the blood-soaked saga of Wong Chi Hang (played by Wong) who became notorious after killing people and then chopping them up to be served as pork buns. Lee plays the leader of a bunch of bumbling, perpeptually horny cops who stumble onto Wong's trail of death after finding a bag of human body parts on the seashore.

One of the true classics of Hong Kong's infamous Category III (ultra sexy and violent) movies, The Untold Story is an unflinching look inside the mind of a demented serial killer. The film opens with a vicious beating and murder and escalates from there. Untold, while holding true to many classic elements of exploitation movies, goes much farther than Western films would ever dare. I've seen many exploitation films from all over the world, and none of them even come close to The Untold Story's reckless abandon. There is something in this film to offend practically anyone -- and if you aren't offended by some of the imagery (which includes rape with chopsticks and dismemberment of children) then there must be something seriously wrong with you.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not passing moral judgement on the movie (I'll save that for right-wingers with nothing better to do). Despite some weak, muddy cinematography and useless comic relief from the cops, The Untold Story is quite well done for the genre. Some of the sequences are repulsive, but at the same time somewhat exhilirating, in that someone actually had the balls to put these kind of sick ideas to celluoid. If Yau set out to push people's buttons, he certainly did his job here. The Untold Story makes Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer look like Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. A heavy dose of gore coupled with a great performance by psycho actor Anthony Wong (he actually won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for the role) makes this movie stand out in a sea of weak horror movies.

RATING: 9

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