SARS Wars
2004 film
SARS Wars (Thai: ขุนกระบี่ผีระบาด or Khun krabi phirabat, also subtitled Bangkok Zombie Crisis) is a 2004 Thai action fantasy comedy horror film directed and co-written by Taweewat Wantha.
The story involves people who are infected with a fictional Type 4 strain of the SARS virus and turned into zombies. The outbreak is contained to one apartment building in Bangkok, and the Health Ministry is determined to keep it contained at all costs. But the building also happens to be the hideout for a gang that has kidnapped a teenage schoolgirl. She is to be rescued by a sword-wielding superhero crimefighter, who must not only contend with the criminals, but also the zombies in a race against the government's plan to blow the building up.
Though it starred popular comic actors Suthep Po-ngam and Somlek Sakdikul, the movie fared poorly in Thailand but went on to attain cult film status by playing at such film festivals as the Fantasia Festival and the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival and through a DVD release that included English subtitles. The movie is available on US region 1 DVD from Discotek Media.
Similar to Kill Bill, it contains animated sequences, including an animated opening-title sequence, establishing the film's leading zombie fighters as comic book superheroes. It also contains references to Star Wars, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix.
Plot
Thailand's leading health official, Public Health Minister Ratsuda, declares Thailand free of the SARS virus and that Thailand's superior technology and medical research will prevent the disease from occurring in the kingdom.
“SARS Wars” enters the record as 2004 film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what SARS, Wars and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“SARS Wars” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, SARS, Wars and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1129317. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “SARS Wars” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.