Kung Fu Chefs (2009)

Kung Fu Chefs (2009)
Aka Kung Fu Chef
Chinese Title: 功夫廚神
Translation: Kung Fu Cooking God

 

Starring: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Vanness Wu Chien-Hao, Cherrie Ying Choi-Yi, Kago Ai, Timmy Hung Tin-Ming, Lam Tze-Chung, Fan Siu-Wong, Bruce Leung Siu-Lung, Xing Yu, Wu Jian-Fei, Cherry Cao Yi-Wen, Ku Feng, Lee Hoi-Sang
Director: Ken Yip
Action Director: Yuen Cheung-Yan, Yuen Shun-Yee

 

Kung Fu Chefs is a little martial arts film made in 2009 (Hung was 57 at the time) that owes its existence in part to films like Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, just like the Kung Fu Mahjong films, Kung Fu Dunk, and Kung Fu Fighter. A cameo appearance by Bruce Leung Siu-Lung furthers that comparison. The premise of the film would remind one of the 1980s, as it’s a simple non-challenging affair that offers the audience some solid fights and a bit of comedy and not much more. To be honest, to discuss the plot would be unnecessary, as you could easily sum up the movie in the following way: Kung Fu Chefs is a 90-minute episode of Iron Chef with a few fight scenes thrown in for good measure. There you go. That’s all you need to know. Pronto.

I actually had a good time with this one, probably because it only aimed to entertain and it did just that. There wasn’t a whole lot of moralizing, jarring bits of melodrama, or out-of-place wackiness or anything. Basically, Sammo Hung shows up as a once-great, but now disgraced cook who goes to work at the restaurant that was once run by his wayward brother’s master. He takes a young cook/kung fu student (played by Daniel Lee regular Vaness Wu) under his wing and teaches him how to cook like a master. This calls the attention of Sammo’s rich, violent nephew (played by Terry Louis Fan Siu-Wong or just “Riki-Oh”), the owner of a chain of successful restaurants whose cooks always win some big cook-off. Fights and cook-offs ensue.

The action here is handled by Yuen Cheung-Yan (action director of the Charlie’s Angels films) and Yuen Shun-Yee (who always played the ugly villain in Yuen Woo-Ping’s classic films). It’s fun and well-mounted, although nothing groundbreaking. There’s a big fight between Vaness Wu and Fan Siu-Wong’s goons at a fruit market and then another one between Sammo Hung and the same goons at the climax, which is followed by a fight between Sammo and Fan himself, who’s armed with a katana. Sammo looks great, although he’s doubled in some scenes and wire-up in others. But for a 57-year old man weighing in at over 200 lbs, that’s perfectly fine, so no complaints from me. I consider myself privileged to be able to see him fight in any film at this age, wire-assisted or not, especially after watching pointedly NOT FIGHT in Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon. So I’m pleased. Fan Siu-Wong, who’s an awesome fighter, is solid, though unremarkable here. He certainly doesn’t get to show off the same skills he did in The Death Games, although I doubt he’ll get another film like that in his career. At least he’s getting work though.

The cooking sequences are fun as well. If you enjoy Iron Chef or any of those other cooking shows that are (or have been) popular for any reason, then you’ll be at home here. There’s almost an entire sub-genre of kung fu cooking films out there, which includes the Yuen Biao film Shogun and the Little Kitchen, Tsui Hark’s The Chinese Feast, and Stephen Chow’s The God of Cookery. I haven’t seen any of them, although I really need to.

If you go into this movie with low standards, you should enjoy it. It’s nothing special, but aims to please in a mild way and does just that. It’s like that Cambodian store that was next to my high school that sold fried rice and a couple of other basic Asian foods (like those little pink bananas covered in sticky rice and wrapped in banana leaves) to us students for lunch. All things considered, it was unremarkable. Nonetheless, it did its job of filling our stomachs quite admirably and was pleasant to the palate, which is really what it aspired to do. Kung Fu Chefs is just like that.