The secret of eternal youth lies within Aunt Mei’s dumplings, but be warned, they may be an acquired taste…
Mrs. Lee (Miriam Chin Wah Yeung, Anna in Kung-Fu Land, Feel 100% II) is a TV actress whose popularity has faded. She lives the literal high life as a member of the social elite in the hills of Hong Kong, but all her money can’t buy back her faded youth, or her husbands (Tony Leung Ka-fai, Election, Zhou Yu’s Train, New Dragon Gate Inn) wandering eye for the latest young PA to walk through their doors.
The squalor of the flats in downtown Hong Kong ‘Aunt’ Mei (Bai Ling, Lords of Dogtown, Taxi 3, Red Corner, Anna and the King), a former doctor in Mainland China, offers the perfect solution in her specially prepared dumplings. For a price she cooks up a weekly meal that can help restore you to your former glory, but you might not want to think too heavily about their ingredients – they’re made from aborted foetuses.
Soon impatience and fears of her increasing philandering husband losing interest in her catch up with Mrs. Lee, but is she truly ready for the ‘extra special’ ingredient that will fast track her rejuvenation? And do they even have any effect?
Like it’s predecessor Three, it was the Hong Kong produced tale from the anthology Three Extremes that proved the most powerful of the stories contained within. So popular, in fact, that Dumplings was quickly spun out from the 40min short to a full length film almost three times as long, even overshadowing the original release.
It follows recurring themes producer Peter Chan’s work, that clash between the modern, Western influenced world and ancient Asian myths and traditions that reverberated throughout the first Three. Here it brings out the worst in both cultures, with deadly results. Dumplings also brings to mind another Peter Chan production, the comedy Golden Chicken which followed the life of a prostitute through recent landmarks in Hong Kong history, even if the subject matter is much darker.
While by no means original – there are echoes of the Hammer horror Countess Dracula, or even the unpleasantness of the early Anthony Wong vehicle The Untold Story – at it’s heart Dumplings is a neat concept, equating the pursuit of youth to cannibalism. It’s a mean satire on how the beauty industry manipulates women rate their own worth by how young and attractive they appear. That Mrs. Lee would even waste her time on her scoundrel of her husband – another brilliantly unlikeable performance by Tony Leung Ka-fai, himself grey and subtly aged beyond immediate recognition – shows just how lowly she rates herself.
Trouble is, though the film does’t feel unduly stretched, director Fruit Chan (The Longest Summer, Little Cheung) doesn’t develop the characters or situation beyond the original short story. With cinematography by Chris Doyle, Wong Kar-wai’s legendary collaborator, the film is as beautifully shot as you’d expect, but it’s almost his involvement distracted Chan. The film is full of wistful, ambiguous sequences worthy of Kar-wai himself.
With such strong turns by the central cast of Leung, Ling and Yeung, you can’t help but wonder what might had been if the story had been developed a little more – perhaps the the acerbic bite of The Last Supper or even the carnival spectacle of Society? Dumplings is a great idea, but enough to warrant a feature length film? Perhaps not…
DVD details
Distributor: Tartan Asia Extreme (UK)
We didn't a copy of the final release here at easternKicks, but Tartan Asia Extreme haven't let us down yet with the quality of their transfers.
However, you can't help feeling Tartan have missed an opportunity on releasing Dumplings in the UK by not packaging it together with the original film Three Extremes. Let's face it, it's unlikely that the British DVD buying public will really go for BOTH films separately, yet would have been quite happy to buy a doublepack with a slightly increased price tag.
