Master Cheng

Cheng is a forty-five-year-old cook who runs a restaurant in Shanghai. After losing his wife in an accident he takes his son to a small village in northern Finland, among the forests and the lakes. He is looking for a man called Fongtron, but nobody in the village has heard the name. While he waits at the village restaurant a coachload of Chinese tourists arrives one day and Cheng goes into the kitchen. From that day the village's eating habits begin to change. Mika Kaurismäki tells the meeting of cultures not through grand statements but across plates. The narrative caricatures neither side; the silence of the Finnish villagers meeting Cheng's grief in the same quiet is the film's main idea. Tommy Chu plays Cheng and Anna-Maija Tuokko plays Sirkka, who owns the restaurant. Kari Väänänen and Vesa-Matti Loiri are also in the cast. Who it's for: Viewers who like slow-moving drama, films about food, and Finnish cinema. Who it's not for: The narrative is predictable and the romantic resolution is too neat. Some supporting characters amount to a single trait.