Customer Reviews

Magic Kitchen

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is not due in the States for several months but this movie came in a lot of movies I bought off Ebay. It reminds me of "Practical Magic," "Simply Irresistible" and "Like Water for Chocolate..." and it is different in its own right. Sammi Cheng plays a unwilling chef who works in a restaurant more reminiscent of a home kitchen than a restaurant. Most of the scenes in the movie she is entertaining her friends more so than clients. Sammi inherits her restaurant when her mother, the previous owner, falls into ill-health and the story takes place 3 years after she has taken over the restaurant. Her assistant, Ho, (played by hunky newcomer Jerry Yan) wants her to participate in this "Iron Chef"-like (called "King Chef") competition in Tokyo but she doesn't feel ready and resists doing the contest. While in Tokyo to visit the set of "King Chef" Yau runs into an old boyfriend, Chun, which makes her reevaluate her life and her past relationships. Yau comes to terms with the bad relationship she had with her father growing up, getting over her relationship with Chun (played by Andy Lau), and dealing with her two close female friends who are well-intentioned but self-serving and manipulative. "Magic Kitchen" also features Maggie Q as one of Yau's friends and a very funny cameo by Stephen Fung that is one of the best scenes of the movies. Overall this is a very enjoyable film. If you like this you may want to check out Gigi Leung & Takeshi Kaneshiro in "Turn Left/Turn Right..."

This movie was really cute, funny, and made me really hungry. I enjoyed it a lot and am glad that it is now part of my movie collection.

Magic Kitchen is a surprisingly sweet and thoughtful examination of the ways people bind themselves to the past...and what they can do to cut themselves loose so they have a future. Sammi Cheng, always an endearing actress, transcends her usual role as a comedienne. This poignant performance is her best yet.

For Set-up, my DVD gave the choice of Mandarin or two different Cantonese dialects for audio. As an American I chose English subtitles, but I really wanted the audio to be the actual actors speaking. I had no way of knowing which dialect choice this would be. This is important information which the DVD should give.

The movie is good with English sub-titles. But it would be nice for the people describing the movies to say which Chinese dialect is spoken. This is Cantonese dialect and difficult for people that speak the other dialects to understand it.

If you are a sucker for romantic comedies this is the one for you never a dull moment at all.

The only reason I bought this movie because same guy made one of my favored flicks Sleepless town and the result is I wasted 13$. Its done in typical Chinese style where people dont have any problems except how to spend money. geeee--nonsense.