Zone Pro Site

总铺师

Taiwan, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 144 mins.

Director: Chen Yuxun 陈玉勋.

Rating: 8/10.

Very likeable foodie comedy boasts a strong script and engaging characters.

STORY

Taibei, the present day. The daughter of the most famous street cook in the south 20 years ago, the late master Fly Spirit (Ke Yizheng), ditzy Zhan Xiaowan (Xia Yuqiao) dreams of being a model-cum-actress but so far has only managed to get a stand-in role in a film. One day she finds her boyfriend Jerry has deserted her and she’s left owing NT$9 million to two loansharks (Chen Zhusheng, Chen Wanhao), who give her three days to come up with the money or else. She flees south, to her hometown near Tainan, and on the train is helped by Ye Ruhai (Yang Youning), a self-styled “doctor gourmet” who goes around helping people improve the taste of their food. Zhan Xiaowan finds her stepmother, Aifeng (Lin Xiumei), has started a new life running a small backstreets restaurant; but when an old couple (Chen Bowen, Bai Minghua) ask Aifeng to cater their modest wedding dinner, she doesn’t have the necessary skills. Ye Ruhai comes to the rescue, but Zhan Xiaowan also asks the help of her father’s teacher, Tiger Nose (Tuo Xian), who lives with his grand-daughter Rosemary (Huang Aifang). Unfortunately, the now senile old man can only remember how to cook Hokkien-style char mee hoon 炒米粉 (fried rice vermicelli) – though the basic dish is still a hit when Aifeng tries it out on old local chairman Xu Yongren (Lv Fulu). Xu Yongren recommends the two women enter the island’s first National Catering Contest, whose top prize is NT$1 million. They also discover that central Taiwan’s onetime famous street cook, Ghost Head (Xi Xiang), is out of jail after becoming a gangster and also intends to enter the contest. When the two loansharks turn up at her door, Zhan Xiaowan decides to enter, promising to give them the prize money. The next day, Zhan Xiaowan, her mother, the two loansharks, Ye Ruhai, Tiger Nose and Rosemary all head off to Taibei, where they clandestinely stay in an empty hotel room arranged by a friend of three young computer nerds (Xu Zhende, Chen Yanzuo, Qian Yu’an) who patronised the restaurant. And then, by chance, Zhan Xiaowan tracks down the third great street-cook from her father’s era, northern master Silly Mortal (Wu Nianzhen), who stole her father’s cookbook when she was fleeing Taibei.

REVIEW

Now just turned 50, Chen Yuxun 陈玉勋, one of the most distinctive of the second generation of Taiwan New Wave directors, makes a terrific comeback to features after 16 years with Zone Pro Site 总铺师, a foodie film that’s a clever compendium of trends in the island’s cinema but packaged in a much more accessible way for non-Taiwanese than other recent hits. Taiwan’s swing towards movies that stress its “separate” identity and culture, and also (like some Hong Kong productions) look back to an idealised, more local past, permeates the movie which, unlike the recent Joyful Reunion 饮食、男女 好远又好近 (2012) or The Soul of Bread 爱的面包魂 (2012), celebrates local grub over Mainland or foreign stuff via the story of a street-cook’s daughter who enters a cooking contest. What makes ZPS different is the way in which it transcends its “local-ness” to become an emotionally engaging character comedy on its own terms and also gently satirises the genre it’s working in.

Chen made a brief but memorable impression with two features in the mid-1990s – Tropical Fish 热带鱼 (1995), Love Go Go 爱情来了 (1997) – which had a distinct visual signature (bold use of colour and design) that helped compensate for their narrative weaknesses. Almost two decades on, he’s got it all together in ZPS, which has an equally strong but not so over-cooked visual signature and, more surprisingly, a well-constructed script that manages to maintain interest even at well over two hours. Though it’s set in the present, with just a few flashbacks, the film has a nostalgic, 1970s feel in its use of pastel colours, costumes and slightly exaggerated archetypes. And though it has a few loose ends, the screenplay finds time to weave into the fabric most of the characters, including minor ones that could just have been cameos, to give a rich feel to a basically simple, generic story.

The movie is a very clever construct that plays into local identity with loads of Taiwan cute (a ditzy heroine with a little-girl voice and hair bow), loads of Taiwan boisterousness (a bottom-line, Hokkien-speaking stepmother), and loads of familiar Taiwan background (petty gangsters, a nerdy chorus, idealised dream sequences), as well as portraying the island as one large, argumentative but basically supportive family. But while Chen’s script plays into comforting cliches for local audiences, it also quietly overturns some of the norms of Chinese foodie films, sending up their gobbledygook and celebrating simple dishes like Hokkien fried noodles or leftovers soup over fancy gourmet fare. The finale – peppered with laugh-out-loud moments, partly thanks to the characters of the three judges – exalts this basic theme.

Like another recent hit, gangster comedy David Loman 大尾鲈鳗 (2013), the movie is stocked to the gills with veteran names: not least, top-billed Lin Meixiu (the mother in Hear Me 听说, 2009; a mouthy mistress in David Loman) in a tour-de-force as the heroine’s antsy stepmother, but also names from the original Taiwan New Cinema movement (scriptwriter Wu Nianzhen 吴念真 in the pivotal role of a trampy street-cook, and director Ke Yizheng 柯一正 as the heroine’s late father). But ZPS isn’t just a stroll down memory lane: the younger cast holds its own, in particular Xia Yuqiao 夏于乔 (the loopy sister in Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? 明天记得爱上我, 2013) who, though third-billed, delightfully embodies the soul of the whole movie in a performance that melds cute with natural. Only Yang Youning 杨祐宁, looking relaxed here, strikes a weak note, with a romantic character who starts strongly but is later sidelined by the script.

The film never looks cramped on its comfortable budget of some NT$70 million, partly by using a limited range of modest locations. Widescreen photography by Qian Xiang 钱翔 (Blue Gate Crossing 蓝色大门, 2002; 20 30 40, 2004) is always full of interest, and reaches a moment of real visual drama as Xia’s heroine first investigates Taibei’s nightime railway underworld. The music by Wang Xiwen 王希文 jogs things along, and songwriter Ma Nianxian 马念先, adding to the nostalgia, contributes a witty “folk song” spoof that threads its way through to the end titles.

Like so many recent Taiwan films stressing “local” values and culture, this one is meant to celebrate bànzhuō 办桌, a tradition of outdoors feasting – though it’s hardly unique to Taiwan. The meaningless English title is meant to mimic the sound of the Chinese one (zŏng pù shī), the name for chefs who prepare such feasts. The film is being sold internationally with an almost equally meaningless handle, The Moveable Feast.

CREDITS

Presented by 1 Production Film (TW), Central Motion Picture Corporation (TW), Luck Royal (TW), Encore Film (TW). Produced by 1 Production Film (TW), Ocean Deep Films (TW).

Script: Chen Yuxun. Photography: Qian Xiang. Editing: Zhang Jiawei. Music: Wang Xiwen. Songs: Ma Nianxian. Art direction: Huang Meiqing. Costume design: Xu Liwen. Sound: Zheng Xuzhi.

Cast: Lin Meixiu (Aifeng/Puffy), Yang Youning (Ye Ruhai), Xia Yuqiao (Zhan Xiaowan/Slacker, Aifeng’s step-daughter), Wu Nianzhen (Hanren Shi/Silly Mortal, master), Ke Yizheng (Cangying Shi/Fly Spirit, master), Xi Xiang [Jin Jiewen] (Guitou Shi/Ghost Head, master), Tuo Xian [Chen Bingnan] (Hubi Shi/Tiger Nose, master), Chen Zhusheng (Stooge A, chief loanshark), Chen Wanhao (Stooge B, his colleague), Mi Ling [Huang Meilong] (Liao Yicai, master chef), Xu Zhende (Cai Qingzhao/Monster), Chen Yanzuo (Liu Zihuan/Beast), Qian Yu’an (Li Weishou/Demon), Huang Aifang (Rosemary, Tiger Nose’s grand-daughter), Yang Liyin (Jiang Bilian, female contest judge), Shan Chengju (Liu Kun, long-haired contest judge), Xie Yuwei (Jin Daren/King, crippled contest judge), Wang Ziqiang (Wang Qidan, rival restaurateur; Yue, ancient king; Su, ancient poet), Lai Peiying (Wang Qidan’s sister-in-law), Liao Huizhen, Gao Mingwei (MCs in final), Lv Fulu (Xu Yongren, old chairman), Chen Bowen (Huang, old gentleman), Bai Minghua (Qiu Yuexia), Xuan Ting (female director), Cai Wuxiong (Hong, director), Xia Dabao (MC in preliminary round), Hua Tailang [Jian Jian’an] (Ding Xiangyu/Little Fish), Wu Pengfeng (Tiger Nose’s master), Li Yongfeng (hotel manager), Shi Yi’nan (young Xu Yongren), Han Zhijie (Xiong), Chen Xisheng (Jerry, Zhan Xiaowan’s former boyfriend), Chen Sirong (Auntie Yang, Aifeng’s former neighbour), Feng Yuetai [Rhydian Vaughan] (street musician, in end titles), Ma Nianxian (agitated taxi driver, in end titles).

Premiere: Taipei Film Festival (Gala Premieres), 12 Jul 2013.

Release: Taiwan, 16 Aug 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 18 Sep 2013.)