Dumplings

A former television actress afraid of ageing finds a woman making dumplings in a Hong Kong flat. The dumplings are said to restore youth. The price is high, and what is inside them is clear from the opening scenes: material brought over from the mainland from abortions. The woman starts eating and asks for fresher. The subject is not horror but demand constructing supply. The film presents disgust not as an outcome but as a habit; the customer holds her stomach the first time, asks no questions the second and haggles the third. The form is surprisingly elegant. Christopher Doyle is the cinematographer and makes the kitchen warm, bright and appetising while the sound does the opposite. The unbearability comes largely from the sound design, and a single chewing noise carries an entire scene. It was first made as a segment in a three-director anthology; Fruit Chan then turned the same material into a feature and gave far more room to the women's story. The difference between the two versions is exactly where the film stops being horror and becomes a social narrative. Miriam Yeung plays the customer, Bai Ling the cook and Tony Leung Ka-fai the husband. Who it is for: viewers who like Asian horror and genre films with a social undertext. Who it is not for: anyone with a weak stomach or who will find the premise straightforwardly offensive; the objection is fair.