Dumplings - Delicate temptation

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Movie
German title Dumplings - Delicate temptation
Original title 餃子
Gaudzi
Country of production Hong Kong
original language Cantonese , Standard Chinese
Publishing year 2004
length Cinema: 91 minutes
DVD: 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Fruit chan
script Lillian Lee
production Peter Ho-sun Chan
music Chan Kwong-wing
camera Christopher Doyle
cut Fruit Chan
Chan Ki-hop
occupation

- dumplings Delicious Temptation (Original Title Chinese  餃子  /  饺子 , Pinyin jiǎozi , Jyutping Gaau 1 zi 2 , Cantonese  Gaudzi  - " Jiaozi ", international title english Three ... Extremes - Dumplings is a) Horror - Drama of Hong Kong from the year 2004 directed by Fruit Chan .

action

Ms. Li is a former middle-aged television series actress from Hong Kong who is married to a wealthy Mr. Li. She cannot have children and her husband rarely has time for her and cheats on her with younger women. In order to be young and attractive to her husband again, she seeks out a woman named Mei, from whom she has heard that she is supposed to sell special dumplings with a rejuvenating effect. It turns out that the meat filling of the dumplings is made from human fetuses , which Mei gets from a nurse friend at an abortion clinic in mainland China .

On the second visit, Ms. Li asked Mei to “do something stronger” that works faster. Mei explains to her that fetuses should have the best effect in the fifth and sixth months and will try to get them. Mr. Li, who likes to eat hatched eggs himself, now makes a masseuse his lover.

Mei used to perform abortions herself and is therefore visited by the girl Kate and her mother, who ask for an abortion for the minor. Mei refuses and makes it clear that she no longer does this. Only after hearing that the family are too poor to have a legal abortion and the revelation that Kate was raped by her father does she perform the abortion. Kate's fetus was five months old and is now being used for Ms. Li's dumplings. When Mr. Li broke his leg and can no longer travel, he rediscovered the attractiveness of his wife.

Ms. Li later developed side effects such as dizziness, a rash and a strong fishy odor all over her body. Ms. Li calls Mei to see what kind of fetus she has got. When she learns that it was an incest child, she is upset, but Mei explains that this would have a particularly strong effect. In addition, it would be particularly nutritious as a firstborn and particularly rare as a male fetus, since otherwise only girls are aborted in China. Mr. Li was secretly listening to the phone call and later went to see Ms. Mei alone to test the rejuvenating effects himself. The two of them have sex and Mr. Li learns that Mei, who was estimated by Ms. Li to be in her 30s, is actually 64 years old. Mei no longer reacts to Ms. Li's attempts to contact her and also rejects her checks. During a visit to the doctor, Ms. Li recognized her husband's masseuse and learned that she was pregnant.

Kate developed profuse bleeding on the way home after the abortion, which resulted in her death. Kate's mother then stabs her husband with a knife. As a result of the investigation into this crime, the police also searched Mei's apartment, who fled and can later be seen as a street vendor. Ms. Li meets with her husband's lover and explains that her husband has returned to her. She offers the five month pregnant woman a lot of money for an abortion and eventually eats her unfaithful husband's child for her own youthful appearance.

background

  • The first performance took place on August 4, 2005 in the Panorama of the Berlinale 2005 .
  • The film is the long version of the 40-minute first episode of the episode film Three… Extremes . In addition to different background information about the characters, the two films also differ fundamentally in the plot. The short film focuses on Ms. Li and her youth craze and leaves out subplots such as the affair between Mr. Li and Mei.

Reviews

“The disturbing and bitterly angry, yet extremely elegant, almost virtuoso film in terms of color and camera work, plays a macabre game with myths and ideas. In doing so, he seriously addresses the deceptive hope of eternal youth and the cultural and social contradictions in China today. "

- Lexicon of international film

“Director Fruit Chan has succeeded in creating a disturbing horror film soaked in black humor, which gains its effect precisely by avoiding common genre clichés. The horror is served here in images of great elegance and beauty. [..] Acoustically, too, the film stands out from typical genre customs. Chan dispenses with a continuous soundtrack interspersed with horror effects in favor of many silent passages, in front of which the targeted use of acoustic elements stands out all the more. "

- Carsten Heidböhmer - Stern

"Now it would be easy to defend " dumplings "as a sarcastic reckoning with beauty mania and as a courageous criticism of the one-child policy in the People's Republic of China. [..] But this film is more than a moral hint: In "Dumplings", Fruit Chan also shows his city Hong Kong from an unfamiliar side - as if it were on the verge of decline. [..] And yet: Stronger than this analysis of the collision of two worlds in this film is Fruit Chan's proven interest in concrete physicality. [..] "Dumplings" is also most impressive when you are overwhelmed by sheer disgust at the sight of the slurping nouveau riche - when you have to pack away the chocolate bar you have brought with you and you have no strength to interpret it in any way. "

- Susanne Messmer - The daily newspaper

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fetuses are necessary for eternal youth ( Memento from May 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Stern from August 3, 2005, accessed on June 12, 2019
  2. ↑ Fear and Disgust in Die Tageszeitung from August 4, 2005