KL Zombi (2013)

Review

"I'm Nipis, the untouch-cable! See, one down!"- Skinny

Skinny, which I guess is the translation of the Malay Nipis, is your typical KL slacker with no plans or big ideas. He plays field hockey, drives a scooter, and delivers pizza for a living. Naturally he has a group of friends that range from equally laid back dudes to KL's equivalent of valley girls. Besides slacking off in the day they also hangout hitting crap noodle joints at night, or at least Skinny does as he tries something from the new place. Unfortunately his sister Anna gets bitten by a stray dog and then kisses this dude that takes her to the local hospital to get her bite fixed.

Naturally Anna comes down with a dose of zombitius and is soon sinking her teeth into the students she is teaching at the local school, heralding in a zombie outbreak that is soon reaching epic proportions across KL. Skinny takes a while to wake up to what is happening, but come the time come the man, as our hero bumbles his way rescuing friends from the growing hordes of the undead. There might be a way to turn the tide, but it comes from such a completely unexpected direction that I was left wondering why I bothered watching the movie in the first place.

Well hot dickity we are in the midst of our Chuckie rampage, okay two movies down, but are already taking a break to review a zombie movie. Hey and for added flavouring it's a Malaysian zombie movie, the first flick from that Country we have had the pleasure to check out here at Scaryminds. Two thumbs up to Netflix for putting this one on the list of titles for our attention. So exactly what sort of beast do we have roped here, well glad you asked we are talking a zombie comedy that sort of zig zags between styles and which is heavily informed by Shaun of the Dead. Is KL Zombi as good as Shaun I hear you ask, well hell no not even on the same suburban streets to be honest. Let's check it out and then move on with some more Chuckie action.

Director Ming Jin Woo constructs his movie in the standard three acts and to be honest there is a lot of schizophrenia strangeness going down. In the first act we pretty much have your standard zombie outbreak going down with comedic overtones, okay those overtones might be a bit forced but they do work. In the second act its more zany comedy and definite nods to Shaun and in particular Shaun director Edgar Wright's style - check out Skinny getting tooled up with hockey gear for example. And finally the third act tries to go a lot more serious, if you can get beyond the super soakers and to add some pathos, which is pretty much eroded by the final couple of scenes where Ming Jin Woo shows he wasn't really playing for keeps and wimps out with a half arsed finale. The Director needed to make a decision on what style of movie he was making and he needed to stick to that decision rather than jumping between styles and making a hash of it over all.

Needless to say the production qualities of this one aren't exactly hitting the heights of even the Australian industry, there's simply not enough attention being paid to detail to raise KL Zombi from the swamp of mediocrity. In differing scenes Skinny's hockey stick appears and disappears as the plot requires, none of the actors would appear to be taking anything seriously, and the zombie effects while good on the makeup are simply extras excited to be in a movie of any sort, and hey who doesn't want to play a zombie right? Anyways it could have been a huge mistake to cast a whole bunch of kids, they are simply hamming things up which takes any feeling of dread out of the equation. Amateur hour at the local town hall acting community comes to mind.

On the bright side we do get exposed to Broway, the miracle cream for whatever ails you, naturally this may or may not be the source of the zombie virus, the movie never definitively makes that statement but it's featured so heavily that you kind of lean that way. Strangely director Ming Jin Woo kicks off with advertising for the miracle rub which immediately makes us aware of the importance of the product but then never really does anything with it till a surprise twist in the third act. Don't let it get you down, hey who doesn't like the home shopping network in their movie diet right! At least on the bright side of the tube the old BRO Khalid is so obviously snake oil that it has a sort of redeeming humour aspect to it.

There are naturally a few plot holes in the movie that no amount of papering over is going to resolve. The dog, which is the focal point of the outbreak, is never dealt with, which pretty much ensures there will be further outbreaks. How exactly the dog got infected is thrown on the table but not resolved in any way, so don't expect any answers, clearly the KL authorities aren't bothered. And by the end of the movie everything is coming up roses as no one really died, except of course the citizens who were ripped apart by ravenous monsters. But hell who's counting right, pick off which ever plot hole feels best for you, I certainly don't want to bore readers by listing all of them.

Acting is pretty much on a hiding to nothing as far as this little black duck was concerned. Zizan Razaqk (Nipis) was solid enough in the lead role, trying his very best to be the Asian Shaun, but the rest of the cast looked like they would be hard pressed to score an advertisement cheque in Countries with more developed cinema cultures. On par with the sub-standard shite you see rolled out in Aussie soaps, the sort of D grade celebratory that no one knows outside the punters glued to the goings on in white suburbia middle class neighbourhoods. Would imagine Malaysia has its very own equivalents, so guess the cast won't starve or have to do actual work.

Throwing my hands in the air like I just don't care over the comedy angle, it simply wasn't rocking my boat kids. Sure the dig at Singapore by the rich guy was humorous enough but I simply wasn't dialling into the rest of the setups. Too much Shaun not enough originality comes to mind, though I'll be the first to admit I'm no doubt missing things as one County's laugh your arse off moments is another Country's head scratching not getting it. I noted recently Yanks haven't yet cottoned on to Fosters beer being export only amusement times, no fair dinkum Aussie would drink that swill water. Still replying with making Trump President has me wondering if our northern cousins aren't going the full monty on jokes. But I digress, you might get more out of KL Zombi's humour than I did.

While KL Zombi didn't exactly float my boat I still enjoyed the 90 odd minute run time and hey in a first for this site a Malaysian zombie movie covered. There's just this feeling during the movie's runtime that director Ming Jin Woo is trying to shoehorn too much into the narrative in terms of movie style, and for sure is trying way too hard to emulate Shaun of the Dead, including Skinny not being aware of the apocalypse going down, witness the hockey practice for example. But hey if after a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, if we avoid the final act here, then you could do a lot worse than this flesh eater out of Malaysia and for those of us on a budget Netflix is carrying the movie currently. Worth a look to see how other cultures attack the whole zombie vibe, but don't lose any sleep over it if not able to find a copy anywhere.