Director: Mamat Khalid Year: 2007 Rating: 5.5 Country:
Malaysia
There hasn’t been very much going on for me Asian film wise this past week
or so. I took a break from obscure Hong Kong films to watch an obscure Malaysian
film. By that I should add that I mean obscure outside of Malaysia; in Malaysia
it was apparently a box office hit in 2007 and actually got an invite to
the Udine Festival. The title is Zombi Kampung Pisang or Zombie of Banana
Village and is a rather fun frantic low brow Zombie comedy. Think Bob Hope
movie without Bob, Bing or Dorothy Lamour and it will give you an idea of
the constant antics and silliness that abounds within. It is fun up to a
point but felt more like an overlong sketch without any characterization
but lots of running around by everyone. There are also some clear social
and political pokes in the eye but I think most of it went under my radar.
The story takes place in a small isolated village where cell phone reception
is nil and any outside help is even niler.
A couple young village slackers are being lectured to by a religious elder
when in mid sentence the old fellow keels over and dies. Not long afterwards
the same thing occurs with another elder. Their bodies are laid out but mysteriously
disappear and the village goes into frantic mode – among them a couple good
looking girls, the slackers wannabe musicians (played I think by some pop
stars), a hard of hearing gentleman and a clearly gay fellow where the old
term limp wrist is very literal and who runs in circles when he is scared.
It is that kind of movie. Sure enough the old men become Zombies as do many
of the other village people and the ones who are still alive board themselves
up in a small meeting hall and try to fend them off. The Zombies are decked
out in badly painted white faces and one fellow screams out Alice Cooper
when he first spots one. The Zombies form a union of fellowship and promise
not to smoke because it is bad for the health but that eating human brains
is not. There is a DVD out there but as far as I can tell it has no English
subtitles; I was able to watch a screener.
