One of the more brutal,
yet fun, oriental horror flicks I've had the pleasure of reviewing is this bizarre tale of murder and cannibalism
on the Chinese island of Macao. Set in 1978, the local police force, consisting of a group of bungling detectives,
have launched a murder investigation after the dismembered remains of a woman are found on the beach.
Discovering the person was a relative of the local restaurant owner, they call round to give him the bad news, only to find that the restaurant has changed hands. Suspicion falls on the new owner, Wong Chi Hang (Anthony Wong), when the previous owners cannot be found and to make matters worse, when the restaurant staff try talking to the police they start going missing.
As the police step up their investigation, they discover Mr Hang isn't who he seems. Turns out he's wanted for murder in neighbouring Hong Kong having fled to Macao some 12 years previous. But pinning this latest series of murders on him proves no easy task, the police seem unable to beat a confession out of him and there's no trace of the other bodies, leaving the question as to what meat was actually in those delicious pork buns he was serving at the restaurant?
Whilst the villain may be no Hannibal Lecter, the film still proves to be both brutal and shocking, featuring graphic scenes of murder and butchery. It therefore came as a surprise to learn that this was actually based on a true story, although I think the addition of the goofy cops was a bit of artistic license done to inject some "Last House on the Left" style humour.
Highly doubtful this film would ever be released uncut in the UK, even in the current liberal(-ish) climate, as it makes "Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer" look like "The Sound of Music". The film has spawned a couple of largely unrelated sequels, which are also supposedly based on true stories, but are nowhere near in the same calibre.
