Chinese Horror Comedy Mixes Elements of SHAUN OF THE DEAD and BIO-ZOMBIE at New York Asian Film Festival
The best way to describe Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight, which screened at the NYAFF is it felt very much like a Chinese knock-off of Shawn of the Dead mixed with a bit of Bio Zombie for good measure; which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The film features two best friends who call themselves the “Double Dragons” who live in a shed on the top of an opera house and work a dead end job as costumed panda mascots at a local arcade. When the zombie apocalypse is triggered by a giant square chicken whose eggs can also be used as projectile weapons, the two set out to rescue their loved ones and lead them to safety. Since China’s guns laws are similar to England’s, in that private citizens can’t own firearms, this also forces the Dragons to use make shift weapons to make their way through the undead horde.
While I dug the humor and concept, the narrative here just seems to fizzle out in the third act, and not in a cool ambiguous way either. When the film starts out we are in this very cool animated adventure that seems like where the duo got their characters from, before it cuts to a more somber real-life for the pair. But when the narrative paints itself into a corner in the final moments, it shifts back to this animated version in a cheat to try to leave the story on a higher note than what it feels like was originally intended by director Alan Lo. So you’ve invested an hour and a half with these characters and you reach the film’s climax it just clicks back to another story without really giving the audience any real resolution.
Don’t think that means the film is bad, by any stretch of the imagination; it’s just not anything new. While the more absurd elements are a fun addition to this well tread sub-genre, they don’t serve any purpose or help deepen what is ultimately a shallow narrative at work. Unlike Bio Zombie or Shaun, there isn’t too much here in the way of good character development to help really crack the surface of our heroes, which is the key difference between a good zombie film and a great one. These films aren’t purely about the threat, but why do we care to see if these characters will make it through it to the credits. Instead of focusing on that, the film seems preoccupied with adding more absurd questions, which are purely entertaining — nothing more. Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight is a fun yet forgettable watch, that feels like it would have made a much better short subject than feature length.