The movie Man-Han Banquet

Time: 1995

Region: Hongkong, China

Agents and administrative personnel

Director: Tsui Hark

Photography: bag

Actor: Leslie Cheung Anita Yuen Chiu Man-Cheuk Luo Jiaying Zhong Zhentao Yik-Man Fan Xiong Xinxin Su Guanni.

abstract

Man-Han Banquet, also known as Happy Ever After, is an interesting New Year comedy by Tsui Hark 1995. Although it's a cooking competition, it's a way of shooting martial arts films: first challenge, then practice hard, full of evenly matched and dazzling cooking styles and winning tricks.

The shape of the film is very beautiful. In the opening remarks, Tsui Hark used the lifting platform to let the camera slide over all the delicious dishes (perfect angle) from above, which made the audience appetite. The opening scene of the food stopped in a parking lot in front of Diaoyutai Hotel in Beijing. This ending scene is very commendable. First, the composition skillfully turns the characters into food (the central round flower becomes the main course, and the people and cars around it form an ornament. Second, it is natural to transition to the prelude of the story-the final of the Chinese cooking competition in Diaoyutai Hotel.

Take the game as the opening paragraph of the film, so that the opening becomes a small climax (the following films are also climax). In the match against (Zhong Zhentao) and Dragon (Chiu Man-Cheuk), they also lived up to expectations and showed their cooking skills. Their respective works-Crystal Great Wall and tofu carving are crystal clear and beautiful. However, Liao Jie has other concerns. Tsui Hark edited the scene in which his wife (played by Xu Kunni) was sent to the hospital to give birth. Out of concern for his wife, Liao Jie finally gave up the third round of 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 himself and wanted to find his own life.

Then the camera turned, and five years later, there was a chef exam. First, the hero A Sheng (the underworld boss, played by Leslie Cheung) comes out and cooks steak with a big knife, which is terrible, and then switches the set meal with a smoke screen. After winning the lottery, he jumped up with exaggerated excitement, and the cheating device he prepared fell off, making him look like a gangster, not at all.

Later, Long Lai got to know Ah Sheng, and when he heard that he wanted to learn cooking, he introduced him to Manhan Building to study art. Ah Sheng left, but he didn't want Feng Ge (Luo Jiaying), the owner of Manhan Building, to keep a gap with Long Kun, and the audience was waiting for the play.

These suspense in the film always seem to end in funny farce, whether it's phoenix songs that make things difficult for A Sheng's side dishes or killing big fish. Asheng failed to prepare food, knocking a table of food to the ground, but patting his ass and saying, "I go to the toilet." . At this time, the heroine Jia Hui (played by Anita Yuen, the daughter of Feng Ge) appeared, playing a common vulgar style in Hong Kong films: coming out of A Sheng's convenient urinal, and then shaking 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 inadvertently take advantage of Jiahui, and the two began to spark. ...

The mirror narrative of the film is natural and smooth, and the connection between the scenes and the scenes is clever.

A Sheng, for example, has just cleaned up the usury 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 Ah Sheng with malicious intent (or kindness). Ah Sheng took a cool bite of a cigarette, then lit it, posing as a cool figure, his eyes blurred, and he seemed to be discharging. Suddenly, the music started and the camera gradually moved to the distant view. It turns out that Jiahui recited a cool pose on the stage over there, which is very clever. Later, Jiahui turned around and sang Carmen with exaggerated makeup. Tsui Hark mixed the accordion, harp and castanets to make Carmen into all kinds of crazy music. A sheng was dumbfounded, and the cigarette in his hand fell to the ground. Originally, Jiahui sang badly, and everyone on the side began to vomit. Then, the gorgeous girl came on stage to compete with her, and two women began to grab the microphone. There are two gangs off the court, and another good show has begun. ...

Finally, the villain Huang Rong (Xiong Xinxin) finally appeared. He was ambitious and tried to annex restaurants in Hong Kong. He went downstairs to the Manchu banquet to accept the challenge, and took the Manchu banquet as a bet to compete with Feng Ge for the cooking of the Manchu banquet. Brother Feng agreed with the encouragement of all the staff, and later promised to give the staff a raise and beat Huang Rong with his heart. However, these employees resigned as soon as they cheered for a raise. It turns out that Huang Rong paid all the bribes. Brother Feng had a stroke in a rage.

At the critical moment, Jiahui and Asheng undertook the great cause of saving the country, but both of them cooked straw bags. A Sheng remembered the dragon, and the dragon told them the legend of the Manchu banquet, but the dragon didn't want to, but he knew it would, so they went to Guangzhou for an invitation.

After many hardships, we finally found Liao Jie, and the shopkeepers of Hongkong restaurants stood on both sides of the street to welcome us. Liao Jie used his cooking skills to make his specialty. The last bite of unfinished yellow croaker soup really opened everyone's eyes. But the chef on the side tasted it and thought it was wrong. It turns out that Liao Jie gave up on himself because of his marriage. In the past two years, he has been drinking. Now he is slow, and the yellow croaker is salty, astringent and fishy. Chefs left one after another, and Tsui Hark still used a bird's eye view lens to show that people who had been reunited at the dinner table disappeared instantly by jumping. 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 big joke, which not only brings the treasures of Chinese medicine-acupuncture, healthy dancing, but also farts. Finally, it is natural to restore the sense of taste. The final Manchu-Chinese banquet contest in the film is also the climax. I won't elaborate here.

It should be said that the plot of the film is very clever. Although the main body is the battle between man 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 in this film are foreshadowed. For example, in the opening contest, the film has hinted at Liao Jie's carving skills of tofu, which indicates the tofu monkey brain of the final Armageddon, and has also formed an echo from beginning to end. For another example, the tests conducted by Asheng and Jiahui to determine whether Liao Jie is the person they want (the two sides are strangers and only have photos) have hinted that Liao Jie has lost his sense of taste.

The characterization is not bad. When Dang Jiahui learned that A Sheng liked Yamaguchi Momoe, she imagined that he would sail and send him away with tears. The scene is like Puccini's opera, which is very interesting. At first, it was a weird punk shape (trying to make his father angry), and finally it stood as high as a woodpecker's crest (because he just took off his chef's hat). Finally, when Ah Sheng came back, the scene of their meeting again was vivid. Jiahui rushed up to beat Ah Sheng, and then checked Ah Sheng's wallet to see if there were any photos of her. At this time, her hairstyle is still high and towering, which makes people laugh.

The banquet of men and Han entered the hall, antique, and the tableware was exquisite porcelain with the words "Long live without borders". The waiters were dressed in Qing Dynasty costumes. Elegant, etiquette-oriented, surrounded by the royal atmosphere of ostentation and extravagance. Man-Han banquet includes three kinds: Mountain Eight Treasures, Sea Eight Treasures and Lu Eight Treasures.

Man-Han banquet is the precipitation of food culture passed down from Qing Dynasty. After years of baptism, Manchu-Han banquet has become a peak of China national diet.