Movie Review: The Untold Story/八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包

Some movies are better left unseen.

The Untold Story: 8 Immortals Restaurant Human Meat Roast Pork Buns /八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包 isn’t one of them.

It’s based on a real events that took place in Macau.

Wong Chi Hang

For reasons that are still unclear, a man murdered a large group of people, including an entire family, in a restaurant.

The 8 Immortals Restaurant,  1 Estrada da Areia Preta, Macau

But that’s not really special, is it?

Well, he wasn’t done.

Because in order to get rid of the evidence, he chopped up the bodies, fed them through a meat grinder, and made char siu bau, or barbecued roast pork buns, out of them, and fed them to the customers.

He tried to say that the owner and his family had emigrated.

Which, in a sense, they had.

When he was eventually found out for the murders, he committed suicide in prison.

So we’ll never know exactly why he did it.

But it is easy to know why The Untold Story/八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包, which is based on the murders, is one of the most infamous films of the last 25 years.

It’s usually lumped in with ‘those’ movies, the ones that are talked about by a lot more people than have watched them, and usually by very conscious choice.

The Untold Story /八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包 willfully violates some of cinema’s strongest taboos about violence, but it doesn’t do so in a (completely) exploitative fashion.

It certainly is gratuitous, and graphic, but I don’t think it’s exploitative.

It’s also memorable.

You’ll never look at char siu bau the same way again.

Or chopsticks, for that matter.

I had heard about this movie for a long time before I ever watched it.

Once I finally did, I wasn’t as horrified as I expected to be.

But that makes sense. Because I had built it up in my mind to be SO horrific that there was really no way it could live up to that level.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s still very violent, disturbing, and repugnant.

But there is, I think, a good reason for the film to be so brutally graphic.

Popular culture often romanticizes or even glorifies criminals, including murderers.

It would be impossible to like, much less want to emulate, Wong Chi Hang, a completely revolting human being.

But let’s face it; you’d have to be someone like that to do the things he does.

There’s a good reason Anthony Wong won Best Actor for his performance in this film.

He’s compelling, believable, and unpleasant.

The trick with these kinds of films, especially ones with a lower budget, is to trick the viewer into thinking they see more than they really do.

Like  Hard Boiled/辣手神探, one reason The Untold Story/八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包 was so relevant in 1993 was because of the looming reality of 1997.

People were nervous, they were afraid, and they wanted to have as much fun and freedom as they could.

Category III movies certainly provided that, and The Untold Story/八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包 provides it in spades.

So much so that people stopped buying char siu bau when the movie came out.

But they got over it. After all… it’s food.

The Untold Story/八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包 is also a very well-directed movie.

Herman Yau manages to create a constant sense of dread, and his structuring of the film adds to the tension.

He was smart enough to put some comic relief in the midst of all the nastiness he shows us, and it really makes the film even more of a roller coaster.

Until the end.

There is no relief from that.

And I think that was his point.

The Untold Story /八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包 is not an easy film to watch.

But it is watchable, and you should watch it.

You should also watch the Review Bonus video for this review. I assure you it’s interesting. 

Trust us; we’re doctors.