Kung Fu Chefs

[Drunk Monk]

This is Sammo doing Stephan Chow's God of Cookery. If you haven't seen GoC, KFC will be groundbreaking for you. If you have seen it, KFC is still pretty entertaining. Sammo is fatter than ever, yet he still has his moves. It's like wushu sumo. He can still drop that front kick with his full weight behind it too. And he's still funny in a self-deprecating way. He chews up this role well - it's a fine update on the GoC theme.

DOOM worthy.

So I got two for the next gathering - this and Merantau. But I'm hecka busy now, so I won't be able to gather for some time.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Too busy unless *whisky* is applied in quantity...?

[Drunk Monk]

...aka mr. sure-i'll-be-there-oh-i-gotta-bail.

You'd like Kung Fu Chefs. There's lots of good knife work, as in chopping of meat.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

God of Cookery is not available from Netflix. I guess that means it doesn't exist, right?

[Drunk Monk]

It also had one of the best depictions of Shaolin Temple ever. Seriously. It took me right back to my daze at the temple.

The whole film is available on youtube, but the resolution sucks. Here's a teaser.
[youtube]nZnXPNbKbwo[/youtube]

And here's a teaser about Kung Fu Chefs, which is also available in its entirety on youtube
[youtube]hGAJRVpFRrQ&NR=1[/youtube]

These films are the kung fu versions of Iron Chef. Tasty stuff!

[Drunk Monk]

if you're into these, you should see Kung Fu Chefs first as it is a slicker update on the premise. And like I said, I'm happy to bring it to the next DOOM gathering. God of Cookery should only be viewed if you're a Stephen Chow fan or really into the classics of HK film. It's probably pretty dated now. I watched Shaolin Soccer last year and it felt dated.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I must have seen a different Kung Fu Chefs. This one was pretty dull and the story was choppy. but it did have Sammo Hung. So, maybe he made two versions.

I think the director had a real food fetish. Lot's of close-ups of food preparation and cutting. There weird shots to show the insides of animals so you could see where to cut. I didn't like the fact Ken (name given out in last third of film) ended up with the second prettiest girl. And he was very man child. Although most of them could be considered man child.

The fights were fine but were chop sockey in nature with lots of additional foley to add impact.

You also need a family flow chart to figure out who is who and why they don't get along.

The film was a structural mess with plenty of shots of food.

[Drunk Monk]

It's a genre on to itself, you know. Probably the most well-known example to Americans is Tampopo.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I don't have that category in my oeuvre.