Jiao Zi (2004)
Genre: Horror / Drama
Duration: 91 minuten
Alternative titles: Dumplings / Gaau Ji / 餃子
Country:
Hong-Kong
Directed by: Fruit Chan
Starst: Miriam Chin Wah Yeung, Bai Ling and Tony Ka Fai Leung
IMDb score:
6,7 (11.076)
Releasedate: 19 August 2004
Jiao Zi plot
"You eat… that you are…"
Everyone dreams of eternal youth. Qing too, and she has the means to stay beautiful and young forever. After all, beauty is just for sale these days... Qing, former starlet and now 'wealthy man's wife', is looking for the ultimate means of staying young. She comes into contact with the mysterious cook Mei, who is known for her amazing dumplings and her clientele of wealthy women. Whoever eats Mei's dumplings will never grow old and that has everything to do with the ingredients that former gynaecologist Mei puts in her snacks.
Reviews & comments
Collins
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- 7282 messages
- 4306 votes
The film deals with the theme of eternal youth and shows how far someone is willing to go to achieve it. This film goes far. With the label horror you wouldn't expect anything different.
There is a good dark atmosphere above the film. Dirty too. This can be achieved without taking very explicit actions. No greasy gore or banal jump scares here. The horror is not graphic. The horror is subtle. With a few exceptions, the horror is mainly suggestive. It functions. This is where tension is cleverly built up.
The build-up of tension takes place in cinematographically heavenly atmospheres. With beautiful play of colors in the scenes. With carefully composed interpretation of the images. With unexpected and interesting camera angles. Very nice. Remarkably often it is style over substance. An impression that is further reinforced by the often painfully slow pace at which the actions take place. A pace that is so slow that you have to fully enjoy the beauty of the images. Let it happen. It's not a punishment.
The music plays a special role. The music does not set any exciting accents. The music is actually not at all appropriate to the atrocities that take place in this beautiful setting. The choice of music is strange and, due to its unusualness, reinforces the ominous tension that the image and story so successfully create.
At the end of the film, the horror mission is accomplished. Consuming a dumpling will definitely have a bad aftertaste from now on.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Woland
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- 4796 messages
- 3815 votes
I was a bit disappointed. It is a film with a rather morbid concept, namely eating fetuses as a medicine against aging but it is also a film that drags along very slowly and relies almost entirely on suggestion. That works very well at some moments, such as the newly born baby that is going to be chopped up near the end, but despite the beautiful images I still had some difficulty keeping my attention. Fortunately, the beautiful cinematography and the sometimes subtle moments in which trouble is hinted at, made it still reasonably good. But for me it was a bit too slow and suggestive for this moment.
By the way, I don't know what it is about those Hong Kongers, but this is already the third film from there that I have seen in the past two months in which people are served in a restaurant.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Dievegge
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- 3166 messages
- 8186 votes
Although Hong Kong has officially been part of China since 1997, there are still border controls. Hong Kong has a more westernized culture. Mrs. Li is on the phone with her nephew in England. They speak Cantonese, mixed with an English loan term like puppy love.
It is a horror fairy tale with a serious undertone. Taboos such as cannibalism and incest are broken. At the same time, it was an indictment of China's one-child policy, which led to the abortion of many female fetuses. This law has been abolished since 2015.
The main theme is the human desire to stay young forever. We see a woman wearing a face mask, but also Mr. Li eating a fertilized egg. The apples of eternal youth are an ancient motif in folk lore. Fifteen-year-old Kate is the human sacrifice from which life is sucked.
Miriam Yeung's clothes and attributes are usually red, the color of blood. Bai Ling is very thin. “Big” Tony Leung plays the old fox who still wants a green leaf.
The slow eating scenes with crunching sounds are gruesome. The Dutch subtitles call itdumplings, but there is a difference between Eastern European knödels and Chinese dumplings. The apartment building in Lai Tak Tsuen, where Kate lives, is special. That vertical shot resembles a near-death experience: a white tunnel with light at the end. Slow, often horizontal camera movements create a dreamy atmosphere. The music consists of quiet, warm sounds of string instruments and flutes, although there are moments when it suddenly sounds more bitter.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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