Worth: $14.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Roy Chiu, Huang Di-yang, Lung Shao-hua
Intro:
A gross-out comedy with gore all over, this is a charged film that thriller fans and genre viewers will find entertaining.
BS (Roy Chiu) and Wenxi (Huang Di-yang) are childhood friends and dreamers who spend more time dreaming about making movies than working or finding a job. Desperately wanting fund their zombie thriller The Gangs, The Oscar, and The Walking Dead and hard up for cash, the amateurs decide to join a gang where their wishes catch the eye of Gang Leader Brother Long (Lung Shao-hua), who agrees to bankroll – and take control of the production.
So begins frenetic Taiwanese oddball comedy The Gangs, The Oscar, and The Walking Dead, directed by Kao Pin-chuan (The Soul of Bread).
A movie laden with bloodied-up hijinks and gross-out gags, Kao’s fast-moving spectacle takes its audience on a ride which includes run-ins with angry mobsters, cut-off fingers, lots of killing and a dead lead actress. It is not for the faint of heart.
The movie is the second feature by the Taiwanese director, whose first and starkly lighter effort, a romantic comedy, screened at the prestigious Tokyo and Bucheon International Film Festivals.
This, his follow-up, played at the equally renowned Busan International Film Festival.
It is about as much of a 360-degree flip in tone as possible. Packed with flying body parts and splatter gags, this is not a film for everyone. There is frequent shooting, spurting liquids, chases and explosions.
Local Taiwanese star Roy Chiu (Dear Ex, Marry Me, or Not) anchors the feature amidst the bang, boom and whack.
There is an element of self-referentiality in the goal of Kao’s two fledgling Taiwanese producers, who mention internationally-known Taiwanese figure and film director Ang Lee (Gemini Man, Life of Pi) by name. It is unfortunately little known that the frequently undervalued and fledgling multimedia industry of Taiwan has produced many internationally high-profile filmmakers including Edward Yang (Yi Yi), Hou Hsiao-Hsien (A City of Sadness) and Tsai Ming-Liang (Stray Dogs).
A gross-out comedy with gore all over, this is a charged film that thriller fans and genre viewers will find entertaining.
