The category III horror genre is still a relatively unknown one for me and 'The Untold Story' is only my second experience, following on from the eerie yet ultimately unsatisfying 'Dr. Lamb'. Although it is clear from the start that this is a far more logically structured piece of work than the aforementioned 'Dr. Lamb', it is also apparent that 'The Untold Story' almost seems to fall flat where 'Dr. Lamb' succeeded and vice versa. For starters, one of the main problems and core components of the film that is severely lacking is the performance of leading man Anthony Wong. It's been proved time and time again that Wong is a very talented actor but oddly enough, he does little here to breathe life into his pivotal leading character and fails to instil the crucial aspect of fear. Instead, he comes across as more of a grumpy old man that kills without motif and doesn't possess any of the attributes of a truly sadistic killer. Sure, he grimaces at all the right points and has the stare down to a fine art but it all feels like one giant cliché that never really allows you to see his performance as anything more than acting.

Herman Yau's handling of 'The Untold Story' also brings about a mixed bag of results. Whilst its fair to say he does a commendable job with the direction, opting for the realistic and gritty approach rather than making the film over elaborate, its also evident that the film lacks the heart to make it really stand out. In my opinion this is mainly attributable to the way that Yau chooses to display Wong's character as he abandons any explanation or back story and we are just expected to accept that he kills without meaning. This restricts Wong's ability to truly emote within his character and so its up to the audience to attempt to fill in the blanks which makes it extremely difficult to either empathise or detest the leading character. However, in a somewhat ironic move Yau actually chooses to spend the final third of the film trying to force the viewer to sympathise with Wong which is totally unrealistic when we've just sat and witnessed the horrific crimes he has performed. Regardless of whether he is mistreated by the (somewhat inept and comical) policemen, it is crazy for him ever to demand the audience to feel sorry for his predicament.

As is to be expected from a film within this genre, the violence level in 'The Untold Story' is extremely high and it is not recommended for the faint hearted amongst you. Throughout the film, Wong butchers his way through numerous victims in suitably grotesque fashions with the added bonus of him hacking them into pieces and serving them up for lunch afterwards. The gore hounds amongst you will undoubtedly lap this up and the effects are without a doubt very well done, so much so that some may well be forced to look away out of disgust. This is of course an essential ingredient required to make these types of film work but in the case of 'The Untold Story', I couldn't help but feel that it was occasionally looking to instil controversy rather than create a truly artistic piece of work. My case in point is the rape sequence as even though this is clearly the kind of act that would be performed by such a twisted man, some of it goes a little too far and drags the sequence out to levels where the taste barrier becomes apparent.

Whilst I ultimately deem 'The Untold Story' to be an improvement over 'Dr. Lamb', it is probably more a case of one step forward and one step back. In my opinion, for a film to truly succeed as a horror flick it needs to combine the gore and chills with a finely constructed story and solid acting. Although its evident 'The Untold Story' shows flashes of these traits, its more likely that most will walk away unfulfilled and still curious as to what the fuss is all about.

The opening sequence, set in Hong Kong, shows us two 'friends' getting into an argument over money. Anthony Wong's character kills his friend by lighting him and his place on fire. He then changes his appearance by cutting his hair, changes his name to Wong, fakes some ID, and moves to the mainland. Though the Hong Kong police are looking for him, this is just a little introduction to Wong's character before the real story begins.

Now relocated in Mainland China (Macau), Wong (played by Wong - that's easy!) is running a restaurant by day and cheating his mahjong partners by night. Meanwhile, the local detectives are investigating a case involving body parts that were discovered washed up on the beach. Wong visits a lawyer, hoping to make his ownership of the restaurant legal, claiming that the original owner moved away after selling him the restaurant. The lawyer won't sign the forms without the original owner's signature and WE become suspicious. I bet you were suspicious already.

The Untold Story follows the same convention as Dr. Lamb. There is the setup, where we see little clues (or very big clues) hinting at the sordid tale to come, the middle part, where the bad guy is arrested and interrogated, and finally the confession, where the crimes in question are shown in flashback. So, the worst part of The Untold Story comes near the end, as we find out what exactly happened to the original owner, his wife, and his kids. Believe me, this is not the sort of scene that is fun because of its over the top performances and excessive gore. This is not a fun scene. It is quite harrowing, and to 99.9% of you, you'll find it difficult to sit through.

I'll warn you right here. This is not for everyone. If you haven't seen a CAT III film before - and I'm not talking about the rating (equal to NC-17, and there are lots of CAT III rated movies that won't disturb you in the least), I'm talking about the genre (films like Daughter of Darkness, Dr. Lamb, Red to Kill) - then don't see this. If you've never heard of the genre, but consider yourself open minded and willing to try anything: don't see this movie. This is only for fans of the genre, and to them I would say the obvious: this is a classic.

DO NOT BUY THIS FILM IF: You have any doubt whatsoever in your mind about your abillity to handle a movie that is also known by the title Human Pork Buns; you just ate a bunch of pork buns; or you are about to go play mahjong with your friend, late at night in his pork bun restaurant.

RECOMMENDATION: Not recommended. Go away. OK? Ok. Now for those of you who didn't go away, this movie is highly recommended as an example of the genre. Is it a good movie? I can't answer that. Will you be glad you bought it? I can't answer that. Am I glad I bought it? Can't answer that. I have, unlike many DVDs I've purchased, watched The Untold Story more that once, if that helps.

The film starts with a Mah-Jong game being played by 2 men, one of whom is Wong Chi Hang. He wins the game and tells the other man he owes him a large sum of money; this leads to a big argument. The man accuses him of cheating which sets Hang off and he attacks the man then sets him on fire. He then leaves Hong Kong and goes to Macau, as a matter of fact, the opening credits are him getting a new I.D. card with a new look.

When we see him again, he's running a restaurant but something is wrong, he keeps trying to convince the law that the owner has signed over the restaurant to him but he doesn't have the proper papers and the owner has gone abroad. This frustrates him but there's nothing he can do. The waitress notices that he tosses all mail addressed to the owner but he has the same answer when she questions him about it and that is the owner has gone abroad.

Meanwhile there's been a grisly discovery at the shore-a load of human remains: hands and feet have washed ashore and it's up to the police to figure out who they belong to. This is where the film broke down for me-this film was a straight crime thriller and would've worked well as such but then they introduce the most moronic cops EVER!

There's the Captain, played by The Killer's Danny Lee (who also co-directed the film) he seems to be a good cop but that's brushed aside by the fact that whenever he shows up at the station, he's accompanied by a new femme fatale. The other 3 male members drool uncontrollably at the women with their captain then leave most of the serious work to be done by the lone female on the squad, Bo (Emily Kwan) who also has a big crush on the captain.

They receive letters from a Hong Kong citizen who's looking for his brother but they ignore them until it's revealed that the person missing is the restaurant owner. They go there but nothing seems amiss until they visit the living quarters above the eatery and most of the family's stuff is still there. But Hang insists they've all gone for a visit abroad and offers the police hot meat buns, which they happily accept then devour at the station. Bo finally traces a fingerprint from one of the hands to the mother of the restaurant owner and they go back to question Hang again. Slowly the story comes together and we are left with a truly horrific climax.

There are quite a few horrific scenes in this film-ones that resonate long after the movie is over. I've gone to user comments on IMDb and see that some see this film as exploitative-they may have a point, seeing as there's no real method to Hang's madness but then again, maybe with some insane people, there simply ISN'T a reason.

The murder scenes were quite grisly but the police scenes were quite disturbing too. Though it could be argued, especially after Hang's monstrous crimes, his treatment at the hands of the police (& the hospital staff) were wrong too. He was beaten & tortured and his confessions were coerced by cruel treatment. If this were done today, no doubt heads would roll.

There was a rape scene too that was one of the most disturbing I'd ever seen-for once, it wasn't done with titillation, it was animal and inhumane. I cringed quite a bit through this movie-that's how intense Anthony Wong was. But like I said before, the only misstep was the comic portrayal of the police. I guess the filmmakers felt that the horrible premise of the story needed some comic relief but it just didn't fit.

I do recommend this movie, mostly for Anthony Wong's performance but be warned, it's quite disturbing and only for the strong of stomach.

Wong Chi Hang (Anthony Wong from Hard Boiled) runs the Eight Immortals Restaurant in Macau. There lies an aura of mystery behind him and why he owns the restaurant though. The previous owner and his family suddenly vanished and according to Wong he was handed over the establishment. Soon a bag of chopped up human body parts are washed up on the shores of Macau...

The year before this wave of Cat III true crime-films started with Billy Tang and Danny Lee's Dr. Lamb. The structure of The Untold Story reminds more than just a little of the one in Billy and Danny's movie which isn't completely odd since Law Gam Fai wrote both. It may not be fair to criticize though since both movies are based on real life events and what we see is fairly close to what happened in both cases. For director Herman Yau it was the first venture into horror/thriller-movies and nowadays that is what he is mostly known for here in the west. There are qualities to be found in Herman Yau the director (he has also acted as cinematographer on a few films including Legend Of Zu) but they're always not apparent. As I noted in my review of Ebola Syndrome the director couldn't quite find a good pace and rhythm to the film. Here however things flow better but it feels like we have two movies trapped in one. One good and one bad.

The Untold Story is of course famous for it's very graphic depiction of violence. We're rarely spared the details of the acts and the various murders committed by Anthony Wong's character are right up in the face of the viewer to a pretty high degree. Effects wise this production ranks above the standard for a 1993 production which means we get to see a lot of the effort by the effects team. What Herman does though is sometimes turn away from the bloodletting by placing the camera and utilizing different angles without fully showing what is going on. The overall effect of disgust and shock is still made clear though, believe me. This way of handling some of the violence made the whole experience less disturbing for me though.

Since it's extreme violence that's being shown it's important to not make it entertaining, especially since this is based on true events. To me, nothing in The Untold Story is glorified. The killings are horrible, the killer is horrible and we get to witness such a cold and cruel side of reality that we wouldn't dare to dream of even. Then the argument arises that out of respect to the victims families you shouldn't be so graphic. That is a valid argument but I would rather have the whole film unmade than to shy away from exactly how disgusting the murders were. It happened and can happen again somewhere else in the world. I have full respect for what the filmmakers did with these sections of the film and it feels like Herman's intentions were realized.

Chow Wai Kei provides some solid cinematography in this film. The murders take place in the restaurant which itself is seems up and painted to give the impression of a slaughterhouse. Chow Wai Kei then makes it looks even more cold and bleak which works effectively with Herman's direction. Jonathan Wong's (also composer of Dr. Lamb) minimal score doesn't break any new ground but kicks in nicely during the intense moments in the film. The music has an eerie doomsday-feeling over it and is another aspect that the movie benefits from.

That's the parts of the movie that does work, now time for the parts that doesn't. Whenever our 'hero' police force are on screen the movie almost turns into a slapstick-comedy. These contrasts between violence and comedy are in every other Hong Kong film but it's rare when the humor inserted actually is funny! Same with The Untold Story and the constant below the belt jokes, like the police men teasing Emily Kwan because they don't find her pretty, gets old even before they start. I have a strong feeling that Wong Jing may have been lurking behind the scenes. It's my understanding that Hong Kong audiences quite like this type of humor even if it's an ultra serious film. In this film however the gap between violence and comedy is so large that I just can't understand why the filmmakers insisted on so much comedy-attempts. The only time the humor does work is in the first murder scene where the victim dies with a firm grip on Wong's foot. Very darkly humorous but still a touch of humor that seems more appropriate if you must have it.

Another aspect of the movie that is shown in full detail is the high level of police brutality. Wong Chi Hang does get caught eventually and the cops waste no time giving him a physical hell. Again, this may be true to the real life events and it's been seen in movies before. Sure, Wong deserves severe punishment but in this case it's should be up to the justice system and the prison itself to punish him. At moments we do feel sorry for Wong but I think Herman balances that line of not letting him became fully sympathetic. We still see enough signs of him being the monster that he is even amidst the punishment he is the subject of.

I must say that I think the supporting cast of this movie deserve some praise (especially Julia Lee) for the courage they display throughout. It couldn't have been easy or fun to shoot these intense and violent scenes, whether you were behind or in front of the camera (actually Herman says that there was a light atmosphere on set so...). Especially the rape scene and the finale are incredibly strong. That cast and Anthony Wong himself are the movies true assets. There's no doubt that Anthony performs his role well here. We're completely convinced of the evil in Wong Chi Hang and he literally is embodied by this terrific actor. The only quibble I have was during a moment or two outside of the violence Anthony's performance feels ever so slightly too intense.

As written the character isn't fully realized though. We do get some back story to him in the movies opening flashback but then when the movie jumps ahead a few years we're supposed to believe he is evil straight of the bat. But what truly made him that way? Was he shaped over the years to become this killing machine or what? It's never made totally clear but Anthony's acting is so strong that you tend to forget to question the lack of proper character arc.

Danny Lee plays a cop (again...) and it's really evident that he has taken full advantage of being a producer of The Untold Story His character almost always enters the police station with a beautiful woman with him (although he admits that they're hookers) and for any particular reason or purpose? Well, Herman explains on the commentary that he wanted to change the typical cop image Danny has in movies but it doesn't become any better, only worse.. Danny can act when he tries to but in these Cat III-productions he's been really average. As someone once told me about a Danny Lee performance in another movie: 'He could've phoned his performance in'.

Herman Yau's The Untold Story is a good film despite my problems with the humor. As they say, it's not a movie for the faint of heart but for those who can stand it, it's not a waste of time at all.

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.

"Masterpiece" is not a word that I throw around lightly. Pardon me for saying so, but there are certain "critics" on the net who dole out perfect ratings way too easily. It's feast or famine with some people; either a movie is "flawless," "perfect," and "tied with (72 other films) for Greatest Movie Ever Made," OR, it's "worthless," "dog shit," and "enjoyable only by those with I.Q.s of lower numerical value than their shoe sizes." No middle ground? Bollocks.

If you ask me, there's no such thing as a perfect movie, but there are a select few that are so impressive that I can forgive their shortcomings unconditionally. Like what? There's BRAINDEAD (Yours Truly's all-time favorite flick), POLICE STORY (Jackie Chan has yet to top it and probably never will), SEVEN (yeah, that's right, a Hollywood movie...you got a problem with that?!?), and now, THE UNTOLD STORY (which, by the way, is only the second film I've ever reviewed on this site and given a 10/10 rating).

How about music? Can you think of any albums (do they still make those? I guess I should just say "CDs") where you can listen to the whole thing through and not be even remotely tempted to skip a song or fast forward through a small part of one? I can...VEREHRT UND ANGESPIEN by In Extremo, and Kreator's brilliant ENDORAMA (which, by the way, includes "Chosen Few," a song I am going to insist, come Hell or waters high, be played at my wedding reception, in the unlikely event that I ever have one). Not even Skyclad...the greatest band ever to walk the Earth...has such a CD in their discography (which, by the way, has been growing steadily since 1991).

Books (you know, those things with words in them)? Well, the "masterpieces" I had to read in school bored the living shit out of me, and served as a solid basis for my theory that English teachers want to turn kids off of literature in general to prevent them from wanting to become English teachers themselves, thus ensuring their own job security via lack of competition (except for Alexander, of course). So what would I happily slap the "M" word on? Definitely TITUS GROAN and GORMENGHAST by Mervyn Peake, and maybe SURVIVOR (which, by the way, has nothing to do with that crappy TV show) by Chuck Palahniuk, author of FIGHT CLUB (which, by the way, has a much cooler ending than the movie).

Now that I've lost about 70% of my audience by talking about books and the other 30% by shamelessly plugging stuff, I can get on with THE UNTOLD STORY. It's a deliberately nasty, brutal film based on a tragic, real-life story (which, by the way, means it is no longer "untold"). How accurately the events are presented...how much fiction is mixed in with the facts...I do not know. Perhaps it doesn't even matter, because there's so much senseless violence in the real world anyway; the movie painfully drives home the reminder that all sorts of terrible things can happen to anyone at anytime...especially at the hands of another human being.

Anthony Wong is brilliant as the psychotic Wong Chi Hang. He strikes a perfect balance between ultra-violent dementia and false normalcy. The most dangerous sort of lunatic is the one who gives an outward appearance of being a mentally stable, unremarkable (if a little obnoxious, in Wong's case) member of society, letting their insanity out to play only when it is safe to do so (or when they're going to kill all the witnesses...). That's what you can expect to see in this movie. A lesser actor probably would have played the role like an obscene Saturday morning cartoon super-villain, mindlessly slobbering over child pornography and laughing hysterically while beating people to death in public. Wong resists the temptation to play a Satanic Jim Carrey on crack and instead gives us a thoroughly impressive and utterly plausible performance. Small wonder he won the 1993 Hong Kong Best Actor award for it.

Meanwhile, Danny Lee plays a cop for about the 847th time. He regularly picks up prostitutes (or at least loose women) and he bosses around a few men who alternately try to please him, try to score with his chicks, and needle their female colleague about her lack of ladylike characteristics. They get slapped a lot. The darkly comic aspects of The Untold Story revolve around these decidedly UN-Supercops; witness their childish "Eww, gross" reaction to the human body parts that wash up on a beach at the beginning of the movie.

Too much has been made of the whole "people getting chopped up and fed to restaurant patrons in the form of meat buns" business (which, by the way, is somewhat perpetuated by the restaurant-style DVD menus...nice touch). Yeah, it happens, but to say that that's what the movie is "about" would be doing it a great disservice.

There can be no argument that the Category III rating is warranted. Little is held back in terms of raw brutality. Two scenes in particular stand out for being shockingly explicit. I don't want to give too much away; you'll know which scenes I'm talking about when you see them. After reading EXQUISITE CORPSE by Poppy Z. Brite and AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis (which, by the way, is so gruesome it makes the movie look like a Disney cartoon by comparison), you can handle pretty much anything, so I wasn't bothered too deeply. YOU might be. And I wouldn't blame you. Watching women get raped and children get butchered ain't for everyone. Remember, though: stuff like this happens to somebody, somewhere, every single day.

The script is very well-done. It would have been easy to throw together a cheesy teen slasher flick-type flow of events where Wong remains on the loose until the very end, when the last fine officer of the law finally brings him down. Mercifully, a much more realistic and satisfying road gets taken. I find it a little hard to believe that the cops would have found the evidence in the garbage truck THAT quickly (and in the dark, no less), but, when my first and foremost quibble is something as minor as that, I'm perfectly willing to look the other way.

I'll definitely be checking out the other Herman Yau/Anthony Wong collaborations, such as TAXI HUNTER and NEW TENANT (which, by the way...oh, shit, I haven't seen it yet so I guess I've got nothing to add here). I'll be one deliriously happy camper if I enjoy them half as much as I enjoyed The Untold Story.

Which, by the way, was one hell of a lot.

Set in 1984 in Macao 'The Untold Story' is based on true events. Claiming to have recently bought a restaurant in Macao, Wong Chi Hang (Anthony Wong) attempts to get the deeds to the property signed over to him although he has no legal record of the sale. Furthermore the previous owner, Cheng Lam, and his entire family have disappeared.

When a bagful of dismembered limbs wash up on the beach and the police receive a letter from Cheng Lam's brother in prison questioning the whereabouts of his family, police inspector Lee (Danny Lee) wonders whether the two events may be connected. In the meantime Wong has killed two of his restaurant employees, in particularly grisly and violent fashion, who have become suspicious about their boss.

It isn't long before Wong Chi Hang is picked up by the police but he refuses to admit to murder despite undergoing extensive interrogation involving some rather suspect interviewing techniques. At this point in the movie its difficult to really know who to empathise with; Wong is clearly a monster but the lengths that the police are prepared to go to are definitely questionable and I did wonder how closely the film was sticking to the real facts of the case. Any sympathies towards the Wong Chi Hang character disappear, however, when he finally admits his crimes and recounts how he disposed of the restaurant owner and his family. Apparently in the real life case, the true circumstances have never been proven one way or the other although Cheng Lam and his family have never been found.

Although the director's motives for making the movie may have been purely about profit, Anthony gives the film the lift it needs to be more than another exploitational horror flick. Rather it becomes an intelligent character study of a man who has already crossed that moral line and is completely remorseless for his crimes.

Although the subject matter is indescribably grim, light relief is provided from the characters of the police investigation. This is something that I found welcome as the film could have been too dark (and its dark enough). Danny Lee is quite amusing as the womanising inspector Lee who appears with a different girl on his arm in every scene in the first half of the movie and the rest of his team don't seem to take matters too seriously early on. There is one particularly comic moment when the investigating team realise that the pork buns they have eaten from the restaurant were actually filled with the remains of the victims they have been looking for.

There's no denying that certain scenes in this movie make for uneasy viewing and its hard to imagine that 'the Untold Story' will ever get an uncut release in the UK. 'Bunman' certainly lives up to its reputation but should be appreciated for the quality performance given by Anthony Wong rather than the excessive violence.