makiprettywoman3
Dumplings deals with some serious issues. You have Bai Ling. Bai Ling plays Mei a famous cook known for her home made rejuvenation dumplings. There is a secret ingredient in these dumplings. You are not told this woman was a former gynecologist and person who used to perform abortions. You won't know much about Mei exactly until a little later in the movie.You have a former TV Star Mrs. Li who visits Mei because she think those dumplings can help recover her youth and become attractive again to her husband. At what costs is it worth looking young? There also ends up being problems with husband such as having sex with other woman than his wife.Some of the content in this movie is stuff you may morally object to. This movie deals with a lot of different moral issues tied to love, beauty and abortion. Just having something like abortion in a movie would probably turn away any American from wanting to watch a movie like this. They ended up taking a short story and made into a 90 minute movie. It does end up being a little bit slow at times. This is an interesting movie. This is worth seeing at least once.
Michael_Elliott
Dumplings (2004) **** (out of 4) Feature length version of the short that appeared in Three...Extremes. It's rather interesting how different these two versions are and what the director sets out to do in both of them. In Three...Extremes it's clear that the director was going for shock and horror value and he captured that like no other film I can remember. The big "secret" had me near throwing up and that same element is here in this feature version but there's some added twists in the extra 45-minutes worth of screen time. The biggest storyline added to this version is the husband who we didn't see too much of in the short. He plays a much bigger role here as we see him in a couple different affairs and this here sets up why the woman would keep eating the dumplings even after learning what they are. A couple sex scenes are also added but an even bigger addition is the director's statement about women and age. How "women are thrown out" as they get older is an interesting subplot as is the Chinese legend behind what is actually eaten in the film.
jamesjay64
I am new to the Asia Extreme films (the first I saw was Oldboy). I enjoyed it because it evokes a sense of creepiness missing from American made films for a long time. Since I have only seen the short film version of the movie; I feel a bit disadvantaged to comment. That having been said, it was well acted and paced. I will be checking more of these out in the future as an alternative to the redundant "horror" being turned out by Hollywood. Spoiler (maybe).... I believe the woman's lengthened tongue in the final scene is meant to symbolize the monster that her vanity created rather than an actual mutation of her actual tongue.
j30bell
Ever wondered what the sound of the crunch of teeth on… well, never mind. You'll find out.You may not be surprised to know that this recent Extreme Asia flick isn't really about cooking. Well, not entirely anyway. You may be more surprised to know that it's not really a horror film. It is pretty disgusting though; so don't think about watching it unless you've got a strong stomach.It's impossible to explain the plot in any detail without giving away the gruesome surprise. But fortunately our director, Fruit Chan, has explained all. It is, apparently, all about modern women's obsession with staying young. Well, possibly, although to judge by the camera-work it's more a feature length homage to Ling Bai's chest than her gift for experimental cooking.What it really boils down to is that classic, older man married to older woman falls for younger woman who turns out to be old enough to be older woman's mother but has discovered an evil formula for staying young involving, well, never mind, you'll find out…, story. Nothing complicated there.Tony Leung Ka Fai gives Ling Bai's chest (along with the rest of her, his wife and his other lover) his customary and lascivious attention. So it's pretty much as you were all around.But what the hell, I enjoyed it. It's well acted (with relish, in fact), pretty well plotted, has a couple of suitably gruesome plot twists and I felt genuinely involved with the characters. My faith in Christopher Doyle's camera-work has been given a partial rebirth after the cheesiness of Hero. And, of course - as a man – it was nice to feel vindicated in the belief of ones total non-responsibility for at least one of the world's ills.As a genuine discussion of the issues of feminine youth obsession, it might come across as a bit shallow. But then it's basically a fable. Fables need a simple message. And this film has just that: blame women.So, if you're a woman, just remember this is all your fault. Nothing to do with men like Leung Ka Fai at all. It's you all down the line, you evil swine.
