Gong fu chu shen

I guess it's only Chinese that we can include everything that moves into our gastronomical cuisine, and for films, everything can be kung-fu-ed. From card sharks to period dramas and even hip-hop and mah-jong, you can slap some characters who are versed in the martial arts of wire-fu into a story, and conjure some bland cinematic magic with it. To boost attendance numbers, throw in a singer / teen idol in it, and you probably won't go too wrong. Kung Fu Chefs follow this tired formula. While there are some limited worthy moments in the film (to be explained), it's below mediocre throughout with uncharismatic leads, weak characters, and having a story which smelt like another.

If Hong Kong movies are running out of steam in coming out with original tales, then this one would be testament that there's some thumbing through of some South Korean screenplays, given some resemblance here to the K-movie of last year - Le Grand Chef, and how that film had some influence over this one. You have a disgraced master in Sammo Hung's Master Wong, a culinary expert and village chief, who fell from grace given a village-wide food poisoning incident. Then there's some unresolved family rivalry, where his nephew (played by Fan Siu-Wong, last seen in Ip Man) accuses Wong of usurping his father's pride as well as a legendary chopper which is quite nicely designed with its dragon-motif handle.

The best bits of the film were actually food related, with some insights, which I hope are real, into the careful planning and preparation of some wonderful Chinese cuisine, from the humble Chinese cabbage, to the renowned Buddha Jumps Over The Wall. I took some delight in the display of skill during the preparation stage, and drooled over the final products ready for the table. Which means of course you should not be watching this (if you've already thought hard and long about it) on an empty stomach. The Best of Chefs competition also harked back to Le Grand Chef, only less grand, and a limited budget meant less screen participants and dishes.

I've watched Sammo Hung in some great Hong Kong action movies in the past, especially those that he did in collaboration with his buddies like Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao. Of late the movies he got involved in were hits and misses, from starring roles such as SPL (hit, except for the ending which I implored) and Fatal Move, which was a terrible miss. Behind the scenes he's also involved in some action choreography like the forgettable Once Upon a Time in China and America, and the last one being the excellently choreographed action in Ip Man.

Here his role as Master Wong Bing-Yi is extremely plain, maintaining a stoic outlook throughout, whether betrayed, elated or angry, it's just one look to rule them all. While I had admired his agility (for his size), age has already caught up with the big guy, and there are plenty of noticeable scenes where you can clearly tell a stuntman's clearly taking over some of the rough and tumble behind those action sequences.

Vanness Wu as the Japanese wire-fu and culinary gradudate student Ken-ichi, is painful to watch no thanks to the act-cute antics, and seemed more interested in flexing some new found muscles in his buffed body. Moreover, his arrogant screen attitude also was somewhat difficult to bear, if not for the about turn in character during the crucial competition. But his cute antics was bowled over by yet another worse actress Kago Ai, who shows one emotion throughout - the saccharine sweet. It seems like a running competition amongst everyone here to best all the rest through a single expression. The other actress given top billing here, Cherrie Ying, is actually quite pedestrian.

I was quite surprised when past the 70 minute mark the film had started to opt for jarring narrative edits in order to fast forward plot development, not that it had anything cerebral to begin with. And seriously, what's up with that tacky opening credit scene too? I'd swear there was a baby in the theatre who started crying the minute that scene came out. Unless you're a fan of Hung and Wu (you can hear those fan girl giggles ringing in surround sound in the cinema), you should give this a miss unless you're in just to watch how food of the elite nature get prepared. See only, cannot eat, so why torture yourself?

People may be annoyed with the fight scenes in between, it was annoying yes but what remained with me was that making of dishes with a beautiful voice over explaining the significance of the method used. Visuals were good, food was treated with utmost respect and everything about the food part was poetic.

Last sequence about cabbage soup and purity was captivating.

Well, if you like kung-fu and food, this movie would obviously be for you... But you'd first have to get past a really simple plot, some really bad acting, and worse of all, a post prod voice recording! That how kung-fu movies were done like years ago, but come on, it's 2009! I only watch subbed movies, and here I felt like watching a really badly dubbed movie (you can easily notice the bad lip sync).

Right, well given my love of the Asian cinema, then of course I would watch the 2009 movie "Gong Fu Chu Shen" (aka "Kung Fu Chefs"), as I had the opportunity to do so here in 2025. Sure, I had never even heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it, so I only know whatever little about the movie as was provided by the synopsis on the back of the movie's cover. But I figured that a movie with Sammo Kam-Bo Hung in the leading role couldn't be all bad.

Come 45 minutes, very prolonged minutes I might add, into the movie, and I tossed the towel in the ring, giving up on the movie out of sheer and utter boredom and lack of interest in the narrative. This movie was about cooking, and not so much a martial arts comedy, as I was lead to believe. I am a bit impressed that writers Cyrus Cheng, Eddie Chu, Simon Liu, Po Wang and Joey Yuen collectively could muster to put together something an boring as what "Gong Fu Chu Shen" turned out to be.

There were some familiar faces on the cast list, aside from Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, the movie also had Xing Yu, Tze-Chung Lam, Louis Fannd Siu-Lung Leung on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were fair, despite the fact that the storyline and narrative utterly failed to entertain me.

In the 45 minutes of prolonged boredom that I sat through, there were a couple of fight scenes, and they were nicely choreographed and executed, but it was nowhere sufficient to make up for a major lack in storyline.

This is not a movie that I will ever return to attempt finish watching.

My rating of director Wing-Kin Yip's 2009 movie "Gong Fu Chu Shen" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Many years ago, Sammo Hung fought with his brother for possession of the fabulous Dragon Knife; Hung's nephew witnessed the battle and his father's injury. He has vowed revenge. Now Hung has gone to work at the once fabulous but now failing restaurant run by Cherrie Ying and Ai Kago, daughters of his former master chef. He teaches Vaness Wu the philosophy and practice and great cooking. But there is a competition for Best Chef in China. Wu and his assistant must uphold the restaurant's honor, while his nephew's chefs do battle in the kitchen and his thugs threaten the sisters, with only Hung to face them.

In other words, it's half cooking competition and half martial arts movie. The jokes and gags lie in the premise, and are carried out without much in the way of comic elaboration. This is a tough thing to do, and while it is never laugh-out-loud funny, it's certainly always interesting to watch, particularly when Wu beats up on the principal of his cooking school while making fresh noodles.