 |  |  | | | The film is filled with a mist of longing and losing, anguish and pain. After throwing themselves into the middle of a catastrophe that spans from generation to generation, the two protagonists find themselves deeply devoted to each other. All dialogues are dubbed in the post-production. A detached and reserved atmosphere is manifested, and it works surprisingly well with the art direction and visual style of the film. Personally I do not like this kind of slow-burning love story, but I respect the filmmaker's persistence and conviction. | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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| | | | | The most obvious difference between the film and the novel is that the narrative perspective is shifted from the female protagonist's to the male's, and it reveals the impact of substituting a female writer, Banana Yoshimoto, with a male director, Yim Ho. Generally speaking, the second part of the film is better than the first. Law Ka-ying has tried hard to personalize the transsexual mother character, but he fails to entail on the father-mother image the intensity that Yoshimoto has so vividly evoked in the novel. The hysterical scene where "she" is murdered by "her" lover is simply a disaster. In contrast, the two young actors' performances are good. From a love game of hide-and-seek to the delight that the chipper kitchen and appetizing food gives, the film drives home the heartfelt gratification of life: life is full of hopes and worth living after all. | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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| | | | | Filmic adaptation is re-creation, and it is unfair to compare it item by item with the novel. But even if we adopt an "enlightened" attitude, Kitchen is still an embarrassing work. The director's intention, no matter how "good" they are, cannot change this depressing fact. Although Yim Ho does have his own philosophical way of understanding the world, he is not dexterous in portraying modern neurotic and alienated characters, nor is he good at commercial calculation. There is no doubt that conflicts can generate tension and momentum, but in the film, he is losing his footing and all are reduced to nothing but hackneyed images. | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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| | | | | If you compare the simple and solid The Day the Sun Turned Cold with the superfluous and exorbitant Kitchen, you will not believe they are from the same director. The problems with Kitchen are not only that Banana Yoshimoto's abstraction are not well tuned in to Hong Kong Chinese's temperament, but also that the film is full of affectations and flaws: ostentatious camera movement, unnecessarily vulgar dialogues, unforeseen miscasting, and maladroit performance. A really disappointing work. | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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