Hunger

A Thai film that talks about class through the kitchen. Aoy runs the small noodle shop left to her by her father. She knows the work well, but the work is invisible. One day a man who comes into the shop offers her another world: a place on the country's most expensive private dining team. Paul, the chef who runs it, is enormously successful and merciless with his staff. He runs his kitchen like an army; whoever makes a mistake is humiliated and whoever cannot take it leaves. Aoy rises quickly, and the higher she goes the more she starts speaking the same language. The subject is not food but what hunger is. The director said so directly: people's hunger is not only about food. The visual choices follow from that. The cooking is not shot to be appetising; meat, fire and fat are deliberately shown in a way that unsettles. Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying plays Aoy and Nopachai Chaiyanam plays Paul. Sitisiri Mongkolsiri directed. It went straight to a streaming service in 2023. A harsh example for anyone who likes class criticism and films set in the world of professional kitchens. Before you watch, know this: the film deliberately chooses to make food repellent, and the last section starts repeating itself.