Shogun and Little Kitchen
Director: Ronnie Yu
Year: 1992
Rating: 7.0
This befuddling title turned out
to be a very sweet old-fashioned film that had echo's of the sentimental
family Cantonese films of the 1960s. A working-class community that sticks
together against the real estate sharks and a romance that blooms inside
it. It begins as a light comedy and slowly turns into a tense drama. Considering
that three of the stars are Yuen Biao, Jimmy Wang-yu and Leung Kar-yan, one
might expect this was going to be an action film but not really at all. Yuen
Biao gets to show off some of his gymnastic skills but he keeps his kung-fu
at home. Biao was on a streak of excellent action films - perhaps not up
to the standards of his two Big Brothers but On the Run, Peacock King, Iceman
Cometh and A Kid from Tibet were very enjoyable films. Here he is a cook,
so quite a difference. This one is usually skipped over when going through
his filmography but it is well worth watching - just don't expect any action.
There is a fire at the end that must have been really complicated for director
Ronnie Yu to film. This was his film right before The Bride with White Hair.
The real star of this film is Ng Man-tat
who had working class in his genes and is terrific as a cook in one of those
plastic chair outdoor restaurants in his neighborhood of ramshackle apartments.
He is loved by all especially because his food is good and cheap and he lets
many of the tenants live rent free in his building. A real estate developer
(Jimmy Wang-yu) wants to buy it but Uncle Bo refuses no matter the price.
These are his friends. He would never kick them out. His uncle Ta Chi (Yuen
Biao) shows up from Peking looking for a place to stay. Bo puts him to work
and before long his gymnastic style of cooking has brought in a crowd. Showing
up in the neighborhood is a young man who has been beaten up and dropped
outside their homes. This is Lin Feng and he too joins the kitchen staff.
He is played by Leon Lai and in the film, he is co-incidentally the son of
the real estate developer and wants nothing to do with dad.
Two more characters added to the stew -
Uncle Bo's daughter who lives elsewhere and is trying to become a designer.
She is Maggie and played by Maggie Siu. She and Leon have chemistry. And
Ta Chi gets a romantic interest as well - Monica Chan who wants to put him
on tour. Leung Kar-yan is crippled and a friend of Feng's father. So, a fine
cast and a good script by James Yuen (the UFO films) and Raymond To (Peking
Opera Blues). The drama churns up in the second half when Maggie finds out
who Leon's father is and the triads try to push the tenants out. In one instance
the tenants all group together and beat the triads up with Granny leading
the way. Granny is the remarkable Ha Woo-ling who didn't appear in her first
film till 1987 when she was 65. I guess she could retire from whatever she
had been doing. She appeared in over 150 films before retiring from film
in 2017. Small roles but a lot of them. I have put this film off for years
mainly because of the odd title and after seeing the film I still have no
clue what it means. Yuen Biao disappears for a lengthy period in the film
and I read in John Charles's book Hong Kong Filmography 1977- 1997 that Biao
left the film set because he wasn't being paid and they had to do a quick
re-write of the script.
