1st Bite

This is a very unusual movie. My girlfriend says it's a roller-coaster. I think it is some kind of X file meets Romeo & Juliet. Another friend calls this a cross cultural potluck fable. "1st Bite" is a movie of food, love and meaning of life. It has very layered messages and stunning visual. Go see it with opinionated friends and have a lively debate and discussion after. You either like it or hate it. This movie is a real trip. The soundtrack very eclectic. It feel strange writing all the above. Perhaps that is what Zen is all about. It fits and reshapes as life is. The Asian actors from India and Thailand are superb. The Western actors are competent and pale compare to the Asian ones.

Wow, I'm sure glad I read the reviews of this film before I bothered watching any more than I did. BTW, I think anyone who gave this more than 3 stars must have had a relative involved in it. I just wasn't sure where it was going at 1st bite, so I started watching even through what looked like a film students 1st bite attempt at a movie. I thought it was going to be a comedy at 1st bite, but then it just wandered off into a miserable, boring failure. It's too bad whoever was responsible didn't have the insight to see that it was going to end up as a disaster and then just turn it into a rip roaring campy comedy because damn, I'm sure with just a few twists this could have been a real rib-breaker and I truly mean that. The acting was bad but then the script and directing was terrible so it's hard to blame the actors. Leah Pinsent proves talent doesn't always run in a family but then again I was never a big fan of her fathers acting but I digress. Bottom line, don't waste your time. Truly, I mean it. It just reached the point in the film where an ugly Thai woman is about to give the main character his 1st bite cooking lesson. Thank god it just went to an ad; I will take that as a cue to not waste another minute watching this dead fish of a film. Wow, it said the budget was a million bucks. Just think how many starving people that could have fed.

I just saw this at the 2006 Vancouver international film festival. The synopsis in the festival guide sounded pretty good so we decided to check this one out. I'm sorry to say I was very disappointed.

Besides being poorly written, it was boring. I won't take away from the actors as there is not much they could do with this bad script.

First bite was cliché without being ironic, over the top seriousness without being funny. The movie would have been better had Hunt Hoe went with a campy horror feel. Instead he took himself to seriously and this resulted with a boring film. I can't recommend this film. It felt too long and all in all just plain weak.

Hunt Hoe's film on food, love, and death references everything from folk tales to Barry White ("my first, last, everything"). Filmed in Montreal and on location in Thailand, Hoe manages to make a mountain out of a molehill, and in true form to his character (see previous works)he stretches his resources to create this thriller that is definitely not your average fare. Like the reoccurring motif of the delicious steamed fish dish and its preparation, the viewer's adventurous spirit will be nurtured. Part fantasy, part stereotype (not good or bad necessarily), 1st Bite is all entertainment. The filmmaker even makes a cameo appearance in his circular cautionary tale of killing and eating what we love.

I had the distinct displeasure of seeing this movie at the 2006 Vancouver International Film Festival. I have been attending this festival for over 5 years, and I have certainly seen some poor movies on occasion. However, 'First Bite' has reached a brand new low in film. In spite of being shot in beautiful locations, with the occasional, exquisite close up of fabulous food, the movie contorts an excessive number of plot twists and stilted characters until I was practically begging for it to end.

The lead actor, David La Haye, completely failed to show any character development throughout the movie, portraying a pompous chef from beginning to end. Additional sub-plots, such as eating disorders, were developed so poorly and completely did not fit within any context that the movie had shown up to that point.

A theme of mysticism was used as a poor attempt to conceal a movie that achieves nothing, goes nowhere, and completely disappoints.