I have to admit that I couldn’t watch the film until the end, and no wonder. The picture is designed for understanding and specific inner humor and a foreign viewer needs to be too simple-minded neophyte to love this film. On the other hand - well, what impression on a foreigner besides annoyance at the stupid gags and simple humor should produce our "Trackers" or there "Dog Barbos and extraordinary cross"?
The beginning of the picture - about the competition of two chefs in the skill of cooking and the departure of one due to problems with the pregnancy of his wife - is in great contrast to the unfolding series of comic grins, gags and falls of eccentric characters who, of course, have a heart of gold. I did not watch the film, but the canons of the genre require that unsatisfactory young people in the production of a Chinese banquet surpass (not without the help of masters from the beginning of the film) the rude nouveau riche, seeking to take possession of the restaurant. It is quite difficult for me to look at the crunches of actors with a large stuffed fish, which allegedly flounders, beats its tail on the cheeks and so on. Even harder to look at the actress Ik-Man Fan, who in a bad voice sings aria Carmen, rotates bulging eyes and engages in low-grade curvature all the way.
Perhaps the film will be interesting to fans of Leslie Chung, who is an unconditional icon in his homeland, in part because he died young. His work with Kar Vai or Chen Kaige allowed to expect the formation and flourishing of a great master, but did not work out. Absolute analogue of Patrick Devaer. In this film, Chung is in the prime of his youth, a jerk, but you can not take away the charm. Asian films, which show cooking processes, are rarely unsuccessful, the good of tradition and cuisine in themselves provide great visual opportunities and fascination, but it is better to watch a film about the food and family of Ang Lee than a very simple and stupid film Hark.
4 out of 10