The second directorial effort for the celebrated Hark Tsui, "We're Going to Eat You" is a gloriously insane combination of martial arts mayhem, slapstick comedy, and the splatter genre. Norman Chu stars as Agent 999, an operative for the "Central Surveillance Agency", who ventures deep into the jungle to find and apprehend a bandit known as - ha, ha - "Rolex" (Melvin Wong). He does find his quarry, but he also finds an entire village full of bloodthirsty - and energetic - cannibals.
Often extremely amusing and never boring, this film seems determined to never let you catch your breath for long. It reaches a fever pitch early on and actually maintains it, generating a lot of appreciative guffaws from the viewer. Truth be told, it does come off as maybe TOO much at times, but at least one never has to wait long for more choice moments. The performances are, by and large, VERY hammy, and dialogue is delivered in a priceless sing-song style. The characters are over-the-top from beginning to end. Tsui populates the cast with some very distinctive and unhandsome faces. The comedy is uproarious, and the filmmakers never skimp on the gore. Effective pacing results in a reasonably tight run time of just under an hour and a half.
"We're Going to Eat You" is certain to delight lovers of cinematic nuttiness. If you've always enjoyed Italian jungle / cannibal exploitation cinema, but thought that it could use more comedy and action, then THIS is the movie for you.
Highly recommended.
Seven out of 10.
