Mrs. Lee, an aging ex-TV star, schedules an appointment with a chef known for her dumpling recipes. She overhears that these dumplings have the powers of rejuvenation, and hopes to regain her youthful looks and win back her husband's affections. The dumplings, however, hold a very controversial secret ingredient...
Yeesh.
Dumplings is a film that is an expanded version of a short that first appeared in the horror anthology Three...Extremes, which was essentially a showcase for assorted Asian directors and their talents. The story for both the short and the full-length feature film are nearly the same, though with some very notable differences that I'll get into. As always, I will try my best to avoid spoilers.
It might sound cliched to say "This won't be for everyone," but I really do have to emphasize that this WON'T be for everyone, and will probably repulse those who are sensitive about a certain court decision made in the last fifty years. I was already feeling quite queasy after the first fifteen minutes, and nothing horribly graphic had occurred outside of food preparation, consumption, and dialogue. The film certainly wants you to pay attention, even if the story isn't too terribly complex.
Don't let the fact that Bai Ling is in this scare you away either, she isn't too bad as chef Aunt Mei (save your Spider-man jokes please), though she certainly reverts back to annoying form when she's drunk in a pool at the film's halfway point. The film's subplots range in terms of creativity, with some feeling like important contributions to helping the movie go forward, and others feeling like they existed solely to fill time. I was also disappointed with the ending, since it felt a little more easy to digest (ugh, that pun almost made me cringe) than the original short's was.
If you've previously seen the short that Dumplings is based off of, it isn't absolutely necessary to seek this out. If you're new to Fruit Chan's work though (which I admittedly am), or haven't seen the previously mentioned anthology, this disturbing little tale is well worth watching. It is well made, competently directed, unsettling at all the right moments, and might just turn you off of eating Chinese food for quite a long time.
Tomorrow, I turn 27. So no review.
Nah just kidding, it'll be all about BLOODY BIRTHDAY.
No comments:
Post a Comment