For fans of obscure horror films, The Untold Story was a measuring stick for just how committed one was to the genre. Notoriously gory and vicious, the film is infamously hard to acquire in the U.S., often passed along via grainy, heavily edited VHS copies. Upon its initial release, the horror movie received a Category III rating in its native Hong Kong, which stated: “no persons younger than 18 years of age are permitted to rent, purchase, or watch this film in the cinema.”
The Untold Story received a European Blu-Ray in 2015 but is still tough to view in its original cut in the U.S. The fact that it has also gone by about a half-dozen names did not help matters. Those other titles include Human Meat Barbecued Pork Buns, The Eight Immortals Restaurant: The Untold Story, and Bunman. But Unearthed Films is bringing the uncensored, uncut version to these shores via Blu-Ray.
“…the local police received letters from the owner of the Eight Immortals Hotel concerning the disappearance of his brother’s family…”
The movie’s unavailability could also have to do with the fact that it was based on one of the more notorious and sensational murders in Hong Kong history. In 1985, several human limbs washed ashore in Macau. At the same time, the local police received letters from the owner of the Eight Immortals Hotel concerning the disappearance of his brother’s family, who ran a small restaurant within. Police ultimately charged a man who confessed to disposing of their bodies in the restaurant’s popular “pork buns.”
Despite the gruesome subject, The Untold Story earned critical praise and bestowed lead Anthony Wong with a Best Actor award at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards. Wong plays Wong Chi Hang, a calculating psychopath behind oversized spectacles, and provides a truly disturbing performance. While the film contains several scenes of brutality and gore, as the actual murders are committed, the camera usually pans to Wong’s blood-speckled face, during which he conveys the savagery and rage simply with his visage.
"…a measuring stick for just how committed one was to the genre."
