Only in Hong Kong would "gang makes someone into pork buns" become an entire genre. Thanks to the success of "Untold Story," the HK sleaze masters rushed out with great enthusiasm to make as many "human pork bun" movies as possible. "Untold Story" remains the best, of course. It's an edgy mix of black humor, sadistic tastelessness, and anything-goes glee backed by a well-written script and wonderful performances. "There is a Secret in My Soup" represents the other end of the spectrum. It's totally devoid of artistic value. Total trash and exploitation highlighted by some sexy mechanic work. For that reason, it's still enjoyable if you can stomach just how repugnant it is.

If there is such a thing as a middle-of-the-road human pork movie, then "Human Pork Chop" is it. There is precious little of interest in this film, and it is amazing at making extreme cruelty and violence so godawful boring. Untold Story is meaner and smarter and funnier. "Soup" is meaner, sleazier, and gorier. This one is simply dull despite having such a wonderfully grisly title.

The story is basically the same as "Soup," as it's taken from the same real-life case. A young woman falls in with the wrong crowd. They brutalizer and tease her until they end up accidentally killing her. In order to cover their crime, they do the only logical thing one would do in a Cat III HK film: they chop her up and make her into food. Imagine if this was the solution for everything in HK.

Despite the misanthropic subject matter, the movie is never as over-the-top as it should be. I mean, let's face it. We all have certain expectations from a movie called "Human Pork Chop," and it fails to satisfy them on very nearly every single level. If you are going to make a crude and tasteless film, you better be outrageous enough to pull it off. After all, the people you might offend probably aren't going to pick the movie up in the first place.

HPC plays it safe though. Sure there is plenty of violence, but there's much more that's just shouting and smoking. The over-the-top gore and nudity that is really required if a movie this cheap and stupid is going to have any chance of succeeding, simply never materializes. The finale cranks up some blood, but it's hardly anything that will shock the type of person likely to pick up a movie with a title like this. What you are left with is a listless hunk of junk that can not entertain or anger. It'll just put you to sleep.

After seeing way more of these movies than I should, all I am left thinking is that the trouble these guys go through to covera murder by chopping someone up and cooking them just isn't worth it. They work a lot harder than someone who just dumps the body in a vacant lot, and they still always get caught.