Dumplings 2004

Fruit Chan is the acclaimed Hong Kong triple-threat – writer/director/actor – with an enviably diverse track record of features since his indie hit Made in Hong Kong. In Dumplings a sex-starved former soap-opera star seeks eternal youth by eating the highly addictive dumplings sold by a certain Auntie Mei, a shady former medic who cooks up the secret ingredients at home. When the soap star’s cheating hubby, who has been seeking penile potency via fertilized duck eggs, discovers her secret, the film amps up into one nasty sexy comedy of horrors – albeit one with a sly allegory of a Mainland-immigrant underclass exploiting the westernized upper class. Chan has concocted a sneakily spiced banquet for connoisseurs of bad taste and political incorrectness. You must see this subtly sick and twisted gem before seeing the film Three… Extremes found elsewhere in this programme. This is Chan’s full-length elaboration of the episode he contributed to that anthology and contains completely surprising new subplots and twists. It’s shot superbly by the great Chris Doyle.