The Gangs, The Oscars, And The Walking Dead [2019]

Drawing parallels to Japanese low budget zombie movie One Cut Of The Dead in deconstructing how a film is made, Taiwanese dark comedy The Gangs, The Oscars And The Walking Dead, as its title suggests, is a more ambitious yet comedic take on the subject of filmmaking. The film incorporates perennial favourite elements from gangster, film-shooting, zombie, betrayal to friendship while seasoned with mischief and pure absurdity. The result is a B-movie fest meets slapstick comedy that builds on with lots of twists and turns as well as a surprising climax. The side-cast is shining: Shao-hua Lung excels as the mob boss but it’s the female lead Yi Ti Yau who steals the show by playing four different characters, including a corpse. While manifesting a strong ties of brotherhood and friendship in the film, the director-producer leading duo whose conviction to making movies (who even works for the mob to pay the debts) is also an apt reflection of director Pin-Chuan Gao's own dedication to filmmaking and his relentless pursuit of movie dreams.