DUMPLINGS: THREE EXTREMES (2004-HK)
review by Neo




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My god this is a good movie and yet very disgusting!
Oh my god. What kind of shit, !@$@#$@$#! Argh! What the hell is wrong with this world? My goodness, of my goodness! Oh shit, shit, and yuck. I want to vomit. Yes, that is exactly the feeling that I got after watching the new Miriam Yeung's movie. It is revolting. I got a real bad appetite tonight. Yet any great surprise of the year, but this time it is not only touching your emotions, but rather your tummy and geez it was a hell of a ride. Oh my god, I really dunno if I can eat tonight, it was disgusting. So if you are eating right now or just a moment before, switch off the screen right now or else you will probably vomit. Oh dear me, a movie that will be so disgusting that I actually like it. Yet another surprise movie of the year. Fruit Chan just continue to deliver in his very unique style. Gore, sex, yuck, shit, vomit, human, babies all in a dumpling is exactly what the movie is about. Perhaps the best bone chillier without any form of horror elements for years and what a movie it was, yeah, what a hell of a movie. What a dramatic different from the last movie being Hidden Heroes, to this absolute vomiting movie. Yes it got this vomiting feel to it, but don't get me wrong, because this is probably alongside Love Battlefield as one of the best movie of the year. Oh my god, excuse my language, but I still feel like vomiting now.

The following is from the official summary: Served hot, either steamed or simmered in broth, 'dumpling' has conquered the hearts of Chinese for more than 1400 years. At your first bite, its juicy meat and vegetable filling offers a gush of exquisite heat and aroma that would linger on and on. Chinese dumpling is inexpensive and practically available everywhere... unless you're talking about Mei's secretive dumpling -- with a bizarre pinkish glow permeates through its delicate hand-made dough wrapping. Mei's dumpling is not meant for ordinary folks - if you dare to try, be prepared for a price beyond your imagination... I won't spoil the movie too much, so I won't tell you what the ingredients of the dumplings are, but trust me, it is gonna be pretty vomiting.

I got this sense of feeling throughout this movie that Fruit Chan is a great art director and is a brilliant director in his own rights in depicting slow scenes without boring the audience at all. My god, this is a good movie. Now just starting to feel better, I will analyses the performances of the actors. Of all the actors, the best was the return of Bai Ling whose portrayal is award winning and wouldn't surprise me if she is given a HK Film Award as Best Actress. Her performance is layback and natural and absolutely pretty sexy at times and also you won't wanna know that part of her life (just don't want to spoil it too much) - absolutely disgusting. The theme of the movie seems to suggest that everything comes with a consequences and the essence of abolition and humanity. As to the performance of Miriam Yeung who impresses me for the first time, though not up to par with Bai Ling, her performance is not her usual self but very serious and display some brilliant acting chops in some very brutal scenes. Tony Leung Ka Fai fares well, and is so lucky that seems to be able to bed and have sex with so many sexy girls and the not so sexy - Miriam Yeung. Geez, Tony Leung really earns his check with a smile on his face. His performance is somewhat straightforward, but he creates this sense of mysterious that overlay the audiences, maybe it is just he is having too much sex. Overall terrific performance all around goes well with Fruit Chan extraordinary direction, but yes it is very disgusting.

Thinking of going into this movie and it is all about sex, it turns out to be not just about it and the central issue is not about that either, but rather the audience is more occupy with the disgusting part that leaves them basically in a mood that will save them plenty of money as eating dinner will not be occurring tonight for me least (counting that I am not going to be hungry - which I highly doubt). This is a movie that I will call, Fruit Chan - a brave director! What a brave director he is in dealing with controversial issues, love the sex in it, but the main purpose is to force the viewers to think and ask them to go to toilet to vomit. This is an excellent departure from Miriam usual roles and hopefully there will be more to come. Now, lucky as I approaches the end of this disgusting and revolting and vomiting review, I am feeling a lot better now, so eating dinner may not be out of reach. However, this movie really uses excellent technique that glue the audience to the screen by constantly shocking them and making them think with the tummy. While Love Battlefield touches the audience in the heart making it the best movie of the year so far, Dumplings rival that by touching the audience with the stomach to be perhaps equal to the best of the year. Wow, what a review I have just survived typing without vomiting when I constantly have this feeling throughout, but since I survived the experience without vomiting, I really can not guarantee you will not vomit. Since I want to make sure you will vomit, go to the movie and watch it while you are eating seafood or go in with a full stomach and I can assure you will have a whale of a time.

I rate it 9.5/10

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Product Title : Dumplings: Three Extremes
Artist Name(s) : | Miriam Yeung| Bai Ling| Tony Leung|
Language : Cantonese |Mandarin
Duration : 90 minutes
Reviewed by Neo (Andrew) - September 2004






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