Gong fu chu shen (2009)

Gong fu chu shen: Directed by Wing-Kin Yip. With Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Vanness Wu, Cherrie Ying, Ai Kago. Ousted chef Wong Bing-Yi is determined to help Shen Qing at her restaurant “Four Seas”. He trains a young chef, Lung Kin-Yat to compete against Chef Tin, the head chef at “Imperial Palace

“KUNG FU CHEFS (2009) brings to mind such Hong Kong cooking movies as Tsui Harku0026#39;s Chinese FEAST (1995) and Stephen Chowu0026#39;s GOD OF COOKERY (1996), but is considerably lower-budgeted. This one incorporates kung fu fight scenes, thanks to a contrived subplot involving decades-old sibling rivalry and a nephewu0026#39;s urge for revenge. The fight scenes are well-staged (by two of the venerable Yuen Clan, Yuen Cheung-Yan and Yuen Shun Yi) and give veteran kung fu star Sammo Hung a chance to show he can still strut his stuff after forty years in the business, but they interfere with the cooking scenes which are the real reason to see this movie. As master chef Wong Ping-Yee, Sammo whips up quite a few mouth-watering dishes. My favorite is the scene in which he makes scrambled eggs in a fashion I wish my local diner would adopt.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe real reason I sought this movie out is the presence in the cast of Ai Kago, a Japanese pop singer known to her fans by her nickname, Aibon, and famous for being one of the legendary 4th Generation of J-pop girl group Morning Musume and, later, half of a charming duo called W, in which Aibon was paired with her equally delightful 4th Gen partner, Nozomi Tsuji (better known as Nono). In KUNG FU CHEFS, Kago is fourth-billed as Ying, the sister of the female owner of the Cantonese restaurant that becomes the focal point of the movie after unemployed master chef Sammo signs on as the head cook after beating the current chef in a one-on-one cooking competition. Kago is the one who gets to sample the competing dishes of roast duck in that scene and it reminded me of all those great bits on Morning Musumeu0026#39;s old TV show, u0026quot;Hello Morning,u0026quot; in which the girls got to eat special dishes provided by local Tokyo restaurants. Unfortunately, she doesnu0026#39;t get to eat much more than that in the course of the film. She has one food preparation scene in which Sammo coaches her in making a sauce. She participates in one fight scene staged in a supermarket and gets to do a lot of her own fight moves, although sheu0026#39;s doubled in the more acrobatic bits. She becomes something of a love interest, although quite chaste, for Ken (Vanness Wu), the young hero, a wandering cook/kung fu expert who winds up as Sammou0026#39;s assistant at the restaurant.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI enjoyed watching Kago, who evidently was instructed by the director to just u0026quot;be yourselfu0026quot; in every scene sheu0026#39;s in, even though, ultimately, she doesnu0026#39;t get to do as much as Iu0026#39;d like. I hope other enterprising casting directors will succumb to her charms. Sheu0026#39;s cute, spunky, full of life and vigor, and utterly adorable, even if weu0026#39;re denied the pleasure of listening to her own voice. Word of advice to those with the bilingual (Mandarin/Cantonese) DVD: choose Mandarin since the voice actress on that track sounds more like Kago than the one on the Cantonese track.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKUNG FU CHEFS recalls another action film that employed J-pop stars from Hello! Project. Three years ago, the Japanese film, SUKEBAN DEKA: CODENAME – SAKI ASAMIYA (2006), released in the U.S. as YO YO GIRL COP, starred H!P solo star Aya Matsuura in the title role, with Rika Ishikawa, another 4th Gen member of Morning Musume, as her chief rival. Their presence enhanced that film significantly as well.”