Ebola Syndrome – Vinegar Syndrome (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Hong Kong, 1996
Director: Herman Yau
Writer: Ting Chau
Cast: Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Yeung-Ming Wan, Fui-On Shing, Chui Ling, Miu-Ying Chan, Meng Lo, Lu Cheung

Release Date: November 26th, 2021
Approximate Running Time: 100 Minutes 29 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Cantonese
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $52.99

"Kai is a violent fugitive on the run from the law. Making his way from Hong Kong to South Africa, he begins a new life working at a small Chinese restaurant. When he joins his boss on a work trip through the African savanna, he encounters a remote African tribe afflicted with the Ebola virus. After attacking a young woman from the tribe, he contracts the virus, but to his surprise, he discovers that he’s immune to the deadly disease. His ruthlessness emboldened, Kai returns to Hong Kong, thus setting into motion a blood spewing and bodily fluids oozing nightmare!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "newly scanned & restored in 4k from its 35mm original camera negative."

Ebola Syndrome comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 60.8 GB

Feature: 60.6 GB

Ebola Syndrome comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 37.1 GB

Feature: 27.9 GB

Hong Kong cinema has not been treated well on home video. Fortunately, this release from Vinegar Syndrome is a sign of better things to come for Hong Kong cinema. The source used for this transfer looks excellent. This is a solid restoration and by far and away the best this film has ever looked on home video. Image clarity, color saturation, and black levels are solid throughout, and grain looks organic.

Audio: 4.5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Cantonese. It should be noted that some of the dialog is in English. There are no issues with distortion or background hiss; the dialog always comes through clearly and everything sounds balanced. Rage wise, ambient sounds and the score are well-represented. Included with this release are two subtitle options: removable English subtitles and removable English SDH.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD include an audio commentary track with film historian and author Samm Deighan and an archival audio commentary with director Herman Yau and actor Anthony Chau-Sang Wong. This audio commentary is in Cantonese with English subtitles.

Extras on the Blu-ray include an introduction with Herman Yau (35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Cantonese with removable English subtitles), a featurette with Herman Yau on the difficulties of translating Cantonese into English titled “Cantonese with Dr. Yau” (12 minutes 4 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and Cantonese with removable English subtitles), an archival interview with Herman Yau and Chau-Sang Wong (15 minutes 39 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English subtitles), a second interview with Herman Yau (21 minutes 52 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English subtitles), an audio commentary track with film historian and author Samm Deighan and an archival audio commentary with director Herman Yau and actor Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, this audio commentary is in Cantonese with English subtitles.

Other extras include reversible cover art, an embossed slipcover limited to 8,000 units, and a 20-page booklet with an essay titled Herman Yau. An Introduction and a roundtable discussion hosted by film programmer Cheng Yu Shing, featuring comments by co-founder of the Hong Kong Cult Film Festival Honkaz Fung, commentator William Yuen, and lecturer and film curator Andy Willis, who discuss Ebola Syndrome.

Included with this release is a Blu-ray that contains Ebola Syndrome and all of the extras.

Summary:

Ebola Syndrome reunites director Herman Yau and actor Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, who had previously worked together on one of Cat III cinema’s most infamous films, The Untold Story.

From its opening moments, Ebola Syndrome comes out swinging with an opening sequence where three characters are ferociously murdered by the protagonist, whose attempt to burn a young girl alive is interrupted. And though the narrative is actually fairly straight-forward, moments of calm are few and far between, as the bulk of the narrative consists of brutal acts of violence that rarely give you a moment to catch your breath. That said, little is left out or left to the imagination. 

From a production standpoint, there’s not an area where Ebola Syndrome does not achieve what it has set out to accomplish. Herman Yau’s direction does a remarkable job of capturing the mayhem and carnage. All of the murder sequences have a spontaneity to them that elevates them beyond your typical exploitation moment. Another strength is the score, especially the main theme, which does a superb job of capturing the mood. 

Front and center is Anthony Chau-Sang Wong’s portrayal of Kai, a cold-blooded psychopath whose sadistic side knows no boundaries. He has made a character portraying similar characters, and once again he delivers an extraordinary performance in which he fully immerses himself. There are two moments in Ebola Syndrome that really sell his performance. The first in the triple-murder sequence that opens the film is a scene where he kills his boss and wife and uses their corpses as the secret ingredient for his hamburger.

Cat III cinema has a reputation for being extreme and in-your-face. Ebola Syndrome more than delivers when it comes to the elements that are synonymous with Cat III cinema. Needless to say, Ebola Syndrome is a film that more than lives up to its notorious reputation.

Hong Kong cinema is vastly underrepresented when it comes to English-friendly Blu-ray and 4K UHD releases. Fortunately, in recent years, the tide has been turning, especially in the UK, which more than any other country has embraced Hong Kong cinema. Hopefully, this release from Vinegar Syndrome is just the first of many Hong Kong films that they plan to release. That said, Ebola Syndrome gets a spectacular release from Vinegar Syndrome that comes with a rock-solid audio/video presentation and a wealth of insightful extra content, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer