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Directed by: Stephen Chow Starring: Stephen Chow, Karen Mok, Vincent Kok If my memory serves me correctly, Stephen Chow plays Stephen Chow: The God of Cookery. Well, Stephen Chow was The Good of Cookery, the absolutely the best chef full stop in all of Asia. When we first lay our eyes on him, he’s in some shithole of a hawker’s centre, critiquing poor Turkey’s (Karen Mok in some unflattering make up) noodles, informing us of the dire situation he’s gotten himself in to. You see, despite his cooking prowess, Chow’s pretty much a phony, rigging cooking contests and repackaging home cooked meals as expensively priced restaurant food. However, when his business partner (Ng Man-tat) and a seemingly bumbling assistant chef (Vincent Kok) sabotage his company and reveal the fraud he really is, Chow goes into hiding, later rediscovering his culinary abilities to soon start clawing his way back to the top with a bit of help from the previously mentioned street vendor Turkey. The God of Cookery (Sik san) is an entertaining Hong Kong comedy that, amongst other things, parodies the popular Japanese TV show Iron Chef with it’s one-on-one cooking battles otherwise punctuated by some superhuman cooking moves. Though often hilarious with some great comedic moments, unfortunately a similar proportion of jokes also fall flat, with the final confrontation, which mixes a humorous flashback with a flat spoof of fantasy kung fu battles being a good example of this. To round out the flaws, the plot is also uneven in places, not really sure how to handle Chow’s climb back to the top, and at one point there is one scene so much in contrast to the tone of the rest of the film it just feels wrong, though thankfully it is resolved later albeit in an offhand manner. There’s also a few subtitle translation quirks but these aren’t really the fault of the movie. On the upside, as Chow’s rival Bull Tong, Vincent Kok delivers a delightfully arrogant performance, while I also give credit to the filmmakers for making Chow a sympathetic character despite pretty much being a jerk for most of the film, and giving personality to Mok’s otherwise crude Turkey. The cinematography is above par of most Hong Kong films of the type, and the film also features a surprisingly good musical score that I’m sure will leave you humming the Bronzemen theme for days to come. Although not as good as Steven Chow’s more well known Shaolin Soccer, The God of Cookery is still a very entertaining comedy from the man once dubbed as “Hong Kong’s answer to Jim Carrey”. 3.5/5 PROS: Some hilarious scenes, surprisingly good musical score. CONS: About half of the humour doesn't quite work. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116426/ mrkillboy fucked around with this message at 10:09 on May 7, 2004 |
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May 7, 2004 09:40
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 17:56 |
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Caught God of Cookery on tv a few years ago. 3.5 is a fair vote for this comedy; and 4.5 to Tampopo. And I have a reservation for 5.0 for Big Night. Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 21:47 on May 9, 2004 |
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May 9, 2004 21:41
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Voted 4 3.5 for the movie. If the notion of an Iron Chef/kung fu/comedy movie isn't immediately appealing, this isn't for you. the extra .5 is for "Pissing Beef Balls" It's funny, but drags in parts and a lot of the specific HK cultural humor will go right over your head.
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May 10, 2004 00:04
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This was the first Stephen Chow movie I saw. At first glance it looked like another throwaway film, but I found myself cracking up nonstop. Eventually, its over-the-top slapstick schtick fits perfectly with all the actors and its ridiculous plot. A pretty good rental, in my opinion. 4/5
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Jun 17, 2004 03:00
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At times I found the ridiculous comedy not really do anything for me (the whole pissing beef balls bit) which put a damper on things at times. The pacing of the movie felt pretty drat choppy at times as well and things are just thrown out there for seemingly no reason other than to tie together some plot point. But anything bad about this movie is made up for by the judge's reaction to Chow's dish at the end. I haven't laughed so hard from a movie for a long time. 4
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Mar 9, 2005 03:55
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