Man-Han Banquet

Movie Man-Han Banquet

Time: 1995

Region: China and Hong Kong

Cast member

Director: Tsui Hark

Photography: Bao Dexi

Actor: Leslie Cheung, Anita Yuen, Chiu Man-Cheuk, Luo Jiaying, Zhong Zhentao, Yik-Man Fan, Xiong Xinxin and Ni Shujun

Synopsis. Although it is a cooking competition, it is a martial arts film shooting method: first challenge, then practice hard, full of evenly matched, dazzling cooking style and winning tricks.

The shape of the film is very beautiful. In the prologue, Tsui Hark used the lifting platform to let the camera slide over the dishes with all colors and flavors from the top (the best viewing angle), which made the audience appetite. The opening scene of the cuisine stops at a parking scene in front of the Diaoyutai Hotel in Beijing. This ending scene is very commendable. First, the composition skillfully visualizes the characters into food (the central round flower becomes the main course, and the surrounding people and cars form embellishments. Second, it is very natural to transition the prelude to the story-the finals of the Chinese cooking competition in Diaoyutai Hotel.

Taking the competition as the opening paragraph of the film makes the opening a small climax (the film is followed by a constant climax). Against Liao Jie (Zhong Zhentao) and Long Kunbao (Chiu Man-Cheuk), they also lived up to expectations and exhibited their cooking skills. Their respective works-the Crystal Great Wall and tofu carvings are crystal clear and beautiful. However, Liao Jie has other worries. Tsui Hark parallel edited the scene of his wife (Suk Kwan Ni) being sent to the hospital for delivery. Because of his concern for his wife, Liao Jie finally gave up the competition in the third round of the competition between yellow croaker and Hailong for pearls, but the children were already in danger, and his wife chose to leave because Liao Jie usually focused on cooking, neglected herself and wanted to find her own life.

Then, the camera turned, and five years later, there was a chef's exam. First hero A Sheng (underworld boss, played by Leslie Cheung) appeared, waved a broadsword to cook steak, which was terrible, and then used a smoke screen to switch packages. After winning the prize, he jumped up with excitement in an exaggerated way, and the cheats he prepared fell off, which made him look like a gangster, not at all like a gangster.

Later, Long Kunbao came across A Sheng, and when he heard that he wanted to learn cooking, he introduced him to Manhanlou to learn arts. A Sheng went away, but he didn't want Feng Ge (Luo Jiaying), the owner of Man Han Building, to keep a gap with Long Kun, so the audience waited to see the drama.

These suspense in the film always seem to end in funny farce, no matter whether Brother Feng makes things difficult for A Sheng's side dishes or kills big fish. When A Sheng failed to prepare dishes, he knocked a table of dishes to the ground, but patted his ass and said, "I go to the toilet.". At this time, the heroine Jia Hui (Feng Ge's daughter, played by Anita Yuen) appeared and played a common vulgar style in Hong Kong films: she got out of the urine pool where A Sheng was convenient, and then shook hands with A Sheng, who reached out, but Jia Hui said the other hand, because this hand had just been convenient. Later, the big fish dispute also made Ah Sheng take advantage of Jiahui unintentionally, and the two began to spark ... < P > The mirror narrative of the film is natural and smooth, and the connection between plays and scenes is ingenious.

For example, A Sheng has just cleared up the loan-sharking affairs with his brothers in a karaoke bar. As soon as the camera turns, a gorgeous girl (the girl of another gang boss) is looking at A Sheng with no good intentions (or with good intentions). A Sheng coolly bit a cigarette, then lit it, posing as a cool figure, his eyes blurred, and he seemed to discharge. Suddenly, the music started, and the camera gradually moved to the distant view. It turned out that Jiahui was on the stage over there with a cooler pose in her back, which was very clever. Later, Jiahui turned around and sang Carmen with exaggerated makeup. Tsui Hark mixed the accordion, harp and castanets to make Carmen into a variety of crazy music. A Sheng was dumbfounded and his cigarette fell to the ground. Originally, Jiahui sang badly, and everyone on the side began to vomit. Then, the gorgeous girl came to the stage to compete with her, and the two girls began to grab the microphone. Off the stage, there were two big mafia groups, and another drama began ...

Finally, the villain Huang Rong appeared (Xiong Xinxin), who was ambitious and tried to annex restaurants in Hong Kong. He went downstairs to Manhan to take the gauntlet, and took Manhan Tower as a bet to compete with Feng Ge in the cooking of Manhan Banquet. Brother Feng promised under the encouragement of all his staff, and later promised to give his staff a raise and beat Huang Rong with his heart. However, these employees resigned as soon as they cheered for a raise. It turned out that they were all bribed by Huang Rong. Brother Feng had a stroke in a fit of pique.

At the critical moment, Jia Hui and A Sheng undertook the great task of saving the nation. However, both of them were cooking straw bags. A Sheng remembered Long Kunbao, and Long told them the legend of Man-Han Banquet. However, Long could not do Man-Han Banquet, but he knew Liao Jie would, so they went to Guangzhou to invite Liao Jie.

We finally found Liao Jie after all kinds of hardships, and all the shopkeepers in restaurants in Hong Kong lined the streets to welcome us. Liao Jie used his cooking skills to make his specialty. The last unfinished soup of yellow croaker really opened everyone's eyes. However, the chef on the side felt that it was wrong when he tasted it. It turned out that Liao Jie had given up on himself because of his marriage, and he had been drinking too much in the past two years. Now he has been slow, and the yellow croaker he made was salty, astringent and fishy. The chefs left one after another, and Tsui Hark still used a bird's-eye view lens, and showed that the people who had been reunited at the table had vanished in an instant by jumping. It is in stark contrast to the previous aisle welcome. Everyone is in trouble again.

In order to restore Liao Jie's sense of taste, Tsui Hark is a great joke, not only bringing in the treasures of traditional Chinese medicine-acupuncture, healthy dancing, but also farting. In the end, it is natural to restore the sense of taste. The final Manchu-Chinese banquet contest in the film is also a climax. I won't elaborate on it here.

It should be said that the plot arrangement of the film is very ingenious. Although the main body is the battle between the people and Huang Rong, it took a long time to pave the way, and Liao Jie did not appear for a long time after the opening paragraph, giving people a suspense. Many plots of the film are foreshadowed. For example, in the opening contest, the film has hinted at Liao Jie's carving skill of tofu, foreshadowed the tofu monkey brain of the final Armageddon, and also formed an echo from beginning to end. For another example, the test conducted by A Sheng and Jia Hui to determine whether Liao Jie is the person they want (the two sides are strangers, only photos) has hinted that Liao Jie has lost his sense of taste.

The characterization is not bad. When Jiahui learned that Ah Sheng likes Yamaguchi Momoe, she imagined that he would sail away and send him away with tears. The scene was like Puccini's opera, which was very interesting. At the beginning, it was a weird punk shape (trying to make his father angry), and finally it stood up as high as a woodpecker's crest (because he had just taken off his chef's hat). At last, when Ah Sheng came back, the scene when they met again was fresh in his memory. Jiahui rushed to beat Ah Sheng, and then checked Ah Sheng's wallet to see if there was a photo of her. At this time, her hairstyle was still high and towering, which made people laugh.

Man and Han entered the hall at a banquet, antique, and the tableware was fine porcelain with the words "Long life without borders" written on it. The waiter was dressed in Qing Dynasty costumes. Elegant, etiquette-oriented, ostentation and extravagance of the royal atmosphere around. Manchu-Han banquet includes three kinds: "Mountain Eight Treasures", "Sea Eight Treasures" and "Lu Eight Treasures".

Manchu-Han banquet is a deposit of food culture inherited by the Qing Dynasty. After years of baptism, Manchu-Han banquet has become a peak point of Chinese national diet.