The God of Cookery (Sik San)

Hilarious Kung Fu Spoof

Plot:

Although has the title of The God of Cookery, celebrity chef  Stephen Chow knows very little about cooking. However, he disguises as a brilliant chef who sits in judgement of those who would challenge his title. He finally loses his title when a jealous chef reveals him to be a con-man and humiliates him publicly.

As this new chef takes on the God of Cookery’s role, the former God tries to pull himself back on top again. With the help of his no.1 fan, Miss Turkey, he opens up street restaurant. When his fame started to rise, he begins his campaign to challenge his rival and find once and for all who is the true God of Cookery.

Release Date: 1996
Distributor: CN Entertainment (Hong Kong)
Directed by: Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle), Lee Lik-chi
Starring: Stephen Chow, Karen Mok, Vincent Kuk
Budget: n/a
Gross Revenue: HK $15,887,000

Review:

As both an actor and director, Stephen Chow only been known in western cinema since the last decade, thanks to Shaolin Soccer (2001) and Kung Fu Hustle films (2004). Chow’s mo lei tau (literally translated as “nonsensical”) comedy genre is new for western audiences, thus very highly regarded. However, before those movies, Chow has produced some good works for Hong Kong cinema, and The God of Cookery probably the best one.

I won’t talk about this movie’s plot, because story is obviously not an important aspect of Chow’s comedy. The best part of The God of Cookery is obviously the humor, which is filled by comical-style slapstick. True that the jokes are silly, and often absurd, but they were all set at the perfect timing, which added with the natural funny expression from the actors.

The movie also acts as a spoof, both for kung fu (like the scene with 18 brass-men of Shaolin) and for cooking (it’s actually a parody of Japanese cooking show Iron Chef). The scene where Chow and his rival demonstrate the mixing of martial art and cooking to create “Buddha Jumps Over the Wall”, a famous dish from Chinese cuisine, is one of the most interesting scene I’ve ever seen in a comedy genre.

So, as this is an “unusual” movie, you can easily love it, or hate it. However, even if you dislike this one, you must still admit that this is new and won’t be found on any other films.

My Rating: B

IMDb user rating: 7.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes meter: 84%

Metacritic: n/a

Yahoo! critics: n/a

Yahoo! users: n/a

Your Ratings: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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Note that ratings and gross revenue are based from when this review was written, so the values might already changed by now.