Bio-Cops (2000)

Over at the Texas Red River Army Depot, sinister research is ongoing. Hong Kong scientists are working to create superhuman Painless Warriors, hoping to beat similar Russian plans to the market. The genetically modified indestructible warriors wouldn't need to sleep or eat -- perfect international police fodder with, we're told, a "sensational effect no less than the atomic bomb". Unfortunately, the virus necessary to the plan's success mutates and the result is the Zombie New Human.

A test subject at the lab takes a bite out of researcher Harry's leg and soon he returns to Hong Kong, seeking a cure for the virus. He approaches his icy ex-girlfriend Bell (Alice Chan) but doesn't succeed. Instead he develops a taste for a nightclub hostess that leads him first to triad troubles and then to a police lock-up. The cop shop gets closed for the night under siege from a gangster's supporters and the confines prove handy for the zombies to spread their taste for human flesh.

Also in the police station that night happen to be cop Marco (Stephen Fung) and low-level triad Cheap (Sam Lee); the latter locked up with his boss Brother Kow (Frankie Ng). Spared a fate of flesheating, Marco and Cheap are joined by Marco's girlfriend May and Bell to fight off the zombies.

Inevitably, Steve Cheng's Bio-Cops is easily compared to 1998's Bio-Zombie with the setting mainly in a single building riddled with corridors and small places to seek shelter. While there may be intent to match the earlier zombie flick, it seems more likely the location was picked solely for the ease of fast filmmaking (Bio-Cops opened in theatres three weeks after it started shooting).

Though a fan of modern Hong Kong horror, Bio-Cops didn't thrill me at all. Too much time is lost on small filler scenes and the splatter action is a too limp to sustain a full-length picture. The cast remains cheerful enough though, even if the script isn't as spirited. Bio-Cops is certainly not the best introduction to the director's work, although Cheng manages to bring it into line at times with a running sub-theme of relationship troubles. While not portraying issues such as domestic violence as in earlier flicks, Marco and May are shown falling foul of money-minded thinking. Folks scrambling for dollars appear elsewhere and other Hong Kong characterisation appears too. One tangy scene has a wife offered to a zombie husband for food with the urge "You know her well. Well, she must be delicious" -- fun humour from the city that brings "rice with five types meat" to its restaurants.

Production values are as low as can be expected of this endeavor. Camera work offers some interesting compositions and occasional splashes of bright colour, and the sets are suitably dingy once the blood starts flowing. But it takes some dirty editing, a character's voice changing mid-sentence and one cast members' bitten-off finger growing back to remind how slipshod Bio-Cops is.

The President Theatre's Bio-Cops hand-painted billboard

DVD information: Mei Ah's Bio-Cops DVD offers a reasonably clean presentation for a film largely shot indoors in dark sets. As such, bluish tones make up much of the feature with the exception of bright outdoor scenes early in the piece. The film's split into nine chapters and features Cantonese and Mandarin soundtracks in stereo and 5.1 mixes each. On my stereo system I heard little difference between the two. Subtitles are in traditional and simplified Chinese and English. As seems usual practice at Mei Ah, the theatrical trailer for the main feature is not offered on the disc, though viewers can see the trailer to Clean My Name, Mr Coroner! instead. The disc's Data Bank copies the synopsis from the back of the DVD case and a brief production credits list is also supplied.

Note: I only saw Bio-Cops on this DVD edition, and am unable to compare it to the original theatre presentation.

Credits:

Directed by Steve Cheng Wai-man
Starring Stephen Fung, Sam Lee, Alice Chan, Chan Wai-ming, Benny Lai, Hui Shiu-hung, Frankie Ng Chi-hung, Wing Ben, Samuel Leung Cheuk-moon and Jude Poyer