The Untold Story
Reviewed by YTSL
This true crime film -- whose descriptive Chinese
title translates into English as “Eight Immortals Restaurant: Human Meat Roast
Pork Buns” -- appears to be widely considered as a Category III classic.
According to the HKMDB, this Herman Yau helmed offering grossed a total of
HK$15,758,491 in its home territory and ranked at a very respectable 24th
on the former British crown colony’s 1993 box office list. Half a world
away, it’s one of the few non-action Hong Kong movies that are available
for rental at my local, non-Chinatown video store. And this past week,
it was honored with two New York City screenings by Subway Cinema, the organizers
of an “In the Mood for Gore: 22 Years of Deliciously Evil Hong Kong Cinema”
fest.
According to a fest attendee who flew from Minnesota especially to attend
one of this wacked out work’s screenings, there are as many as five different
versions floating around of THE UNTOLD STORY; with the 35 mm print that was
shown in New York being one of the more censored of them. At this juncture,
I wish to point out that this particular cut version is the only one of this
extreme film that I have viewed (and probably ever will view). For
all of its been less complete than other ones, rest assured that I was witness
to enough movie gore and violence to understand why this Danny Lee production
-- for which he also is a co-presenter (along with Yang Teng-Kuei) and co-star
(in his customary role as a crime-busting character who gets addressed as
“Lee Sir”) -- well merits a Category III rating (and prompted two walkouts
at the screening -- by a veteran Hong Kong filmophile who I don’t want to
embarrass by naming, and someone else who identified himself as a medical
doctor before going along his own merry way! -- that I was in the audience
for).
THE UNTOLD STORY centers on a most unsavory character named Chan Chi Leung
(who is portrayed by the HKFA Best Actor prize winning Anthony Wong).
Not only does this bulging eyed individual cheat at mahjong but he also is
liable to butcher those who correctly as well as honestly point out that
he does this. After Chan kills one such accuser, he flees his native
Hong Kong, only to resurface -- albeit with a shorter hair style and a disguising
pair of eye-glasses -- some while later in neighboring Macau. Far from
learning from those of his mistakes that caused him to become a permanent
exile however, this loose cannon of a character appears to have few qualms
about behaving as badly in the then Portugese outpost as he had previously
done. Instead, as the likes of the ill-fated character played by the
notorious Julie Lee (AKA Julie Riva) would learn to their detriment, it would
seem that Chan only got weirder and worse when he was away from his home
(which, unlike with his adopted land, does legally issue death penalties
rather than “just” life sentences).
Gore hounds will undoubtedly be happy to learn that the Macau section of
THE UNTOLD STORY is filled with more violent and despicable actions as well
as way longer than the Hong Kong segment that turns out to really only be
this effort’s prelude. More than incidentally, for much of the film,
its criminal main character is professionally identified as the owner of
a “tea shop” (budget Chinese restaurant) whose apparent specialty consists
of freshly made meat buns -- some of which, at one stage of the movie, a
bunch of not particularly bright plain clothes police officers (who include
those essayed by Parkman Wong and Emily Kwan) are shown to very much enjoy
eating. Additionally, a significant chunk is devoted to depicting how
Chan came to be in charge of this establishment that he had started off at
as a hired hand of the mahjong playing middle aged husband and father --
of three young daughters and one precious son -- who was its long time boss.
Another considerable portion of THE UNTOLD STORY centers on the investigation
of a team of detectives -- who are rather loosely supervised by Inspector
Lee (whose personal name is never divulged but which I’d not be surprised
to learn is Danny, and who almost always gets shown in the company of the
type of women that Macau is infamous for having) -- that’s prompted by the
discovery of some human body parts that the tide washed up onto a beach.
When observing the often downright idiotic as well as bumbling behavior of
these persons who are officially on the right side of the law, it looks to
be a miracle that they would ever be successful at tracking down any criminals.
In this case, they are fortunate enough to get a few lucky breaks, including
ones that helped them to connect it with a series of letters that they had
been receiving from China by a man who wanted them to track down the whereabouts
of his restaurant-owning brother and his family (including elderly mother).
This having been said, few individuals will want to get on these cops’ bad
side, since they are as serious when it comes to trying to get a confession
from a prime suspect as they are laughable when coming up with other kinds
of evidence to convict a man. When pretty graphically observing Chan
raping, killing and dismembering his victims (whose age range is considerably
wider than what one usually is presented with by more conventional film-makers),
many people -- including this (re)viewer who, in all honesty, felt herself
gagging at one point during the screening -- surely won’t be able to help
but think that he -- who also doesn’t treat himself all that well -- is one
deranged sicko who deserves an absolutely terrible comeuppance. However,
these same viewers probably also would be unable to independently imagine,
plus wholeheartedly endorse, the agonies that the movie’s Macanese police
-- and their helpers (who include a revenge-seeking nurse plus convict brother
of a murdered man (the latter of whom comes in the form of a seemingly perennially
scowling Shing Fui On)) -- are shown inflicting on an undeniably deadly criminal
who, before THE UNTOLD STORY’s end, I actually started feeling somewhat sorry
for.
My rating for this film: 6.