Dumplings.
There has been a long standing love for oriental food ever since the first noodle. If I were to ask you now to picture your favourite meals, somewhere in there you’d imagine steaming hot spare ribs, tasty spiced rice, noodles that do not belong in pots, sweet and sour chicken and hoisin sauced duck. I bet you are all drooling now, I for one am mopping up my keyboard. So oriental food has been a staple of many diets for years, and on that list are dumplings which are tasty fried little balls of meat inside batter. Do you like dumplings? Well, I’m going to ruin them for you now.
Dumplings, that is the movie, is a 2004 Hong Kong horror movie about the dish. When Mrs Li, a rich former actress, finds out that her husband has been cheating on her with a younger masseuse. She is desperate to gain her looks back. However, the usual treatments don’t work and Mrs Li catches wind of some magical dumplings made by the infamous Aunt Mei. After a few pricey dumplings, Mrs Li begins to look incredible and much younger. Please with the complements, Li scoffs herself with dumplings to rejuvenate herself. But there is a price, and when one batch turns sour on Mrs Li, she soon finds out that what she has been ingesting is, wait for it, unborn foetuses. Yum.
Dumplings, if you haven’t gathered from the synopsis, is one of those completely surreal movies. Trust me, even without the terrifying meal of doom, the dialogue and the events that occur around it make this movie one of the strangest ever. Not to say that the acting isn’t good. In fact, Bai Ling won Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film awards for her portrayal of the loopy Aunt Mei. It may seem ridiculous but the realistic style of cinematography pulls you into the gruesome tale. While that may be so, it isn’t for the faint hearted so unless you fancy seeing plenty of unborn foetuses cut up and made into a snack, you will want to go as far away from this movie. There is always an uneasy incestuous storyline that makes you squirm in your seat.
It could have been worse though and Dumplings is actually based on a short film by Fruit Chan (who directed this longer version) for the Three.. Extremes (which including a picture by the lovely Takeshi Miike. In the original movie, Mrs Li actually discovers she is two months pregnant and has the bat shit crazy decision on what to do. What does she do? Well, in the original, she eats her own child to stay young. In this, it is the child of her husband’s affair.
Other all, there are some real strengths to Dumplings and Chan directs this with atmosphere. Putting the fright in dialogue and morbid images that cling to you, Dumplings will long be on your mind whenever you are ordering at your Chinese take away. Despite the really awkward sex scene, Dumplings is a creepy haunting picture that will push your own sense of vanity. How far will you go for your beauty?
TTFN
Cookie.