Table for Six

Sunny Chan's 2022 Hong Kong film gathers three brothers and their partners around a dinner table. For the eldest, Steve, nothing is more satisfying than eating with his siblings; but when his old flame turns up as his brother's girlfriend the kitchen becomes a battlefield, and calming things down falls to Steve's part-time girlfriend. The structure takes place almost entirely at the table and the comedy comes from the characters cutting each other off. It was an unexpected commercial success in Hong Kong and was read as a sign of renewed interest in local productions after the pandemic. The narrative weakness is that the women are assigned the task of resolving the men's conflict. Who it's for: viewers who like Hong Kong comedy and family films set in one location. Who it's not for: anyone bothered by local Cantonese wordplay disappearing in translation, or troubled by women characters kept functional.