Kai San (Anthony Wong of The Untold Story and Infernal Affairs) is caught having an affair with his boss’ wife and when he’s caught by his employer, he winds up killing the both of them and going on the run. 

A few years later we find Kai working in a Chinese restaurant somewhere in Africa and where, on a routine mission to buy some meat, he comes across a very sick village woman. Sweetheart that he is, Kai brutally rapes the helpless woman and soon finds out that payback is a bitch – he’s contracted the Ebola virus! 

Luckily for Kai and not so luckily for everyone else, Kai is one of those rare people whose genes just don’t subside to the virus meaning that he can carry it and give it to people but that it won’t kill him like it would ninety-nine percent of the world’s population. When he figures this out, he runs with it and uses his ‘gift’ to rape, kill and steal his way back to his homeland in Hong Kong. 

Once he’s home, however, Kai finds that it’s not easy to give up on his strange ways and soon he draws the attention of the local police who, once they find out about him, make it a priority to bring him in before he infects even more people. 

Completely tasteless and crass as crass can be, The Ebola Syndrome pulls no punches dealing with a reasonably sensitive subject in the most exploitative way possible. Front and center in all of this is Anthony Wong, who had previously worked with director Herman Yau on the notorious and exceptionally well made The Untold Story. Wong seems to revel in his character’s inherent nastiness, completely throwing himself into the role as if it were the part he was born to play. He’s absolutely over the top in every way he should be and it’s this manic intensity that he brings to the screen that makes the movie so much goofy, gory fun. 

That said, the script certainly affords Wong every opportunity to ham it up and sleazify things quite nicely. Ting Chau’s script gives Wong plenty of chances to strut his stuff and prove himself the undisputed King of Cat III Cinema! The rest of the cast are fairly unremarkable but it matters very little as this is Wong’s show all the way. 

Yau’s direction is solid from start to finish as the film moves along at a very quick pace and rarely do more than a few minutes pass before he brings us the next atrocity to ogle. The camera leaves little to the imagination, piling on the gore and the nudity with reckless abandon and leering tastelessly at the results of Wong’s mayhem. 

Even if the script (which is as ripe with plot holes as it is with nastiness) is a bit goofy, the film throws it all in our face with such nasty glee that it’s hard not to enjoy it and revel along with the filmmakers. It’s gross, it’s gory, and it’s great.