Let’s Eat!

开饭啦！

Malaysia/Singapore, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 95 mins.

Director: Du Wenze 杜汶泽 [Chapman To].

Rating: 4/10.

Lazily scripted foodie comedy, set in KL, is a bland directing debut by Hong Kong actor Du Wenze [Chapman To] that lacks wit and bounce.

STORY

Kuala Lumpur, the present day. Hong Yongcheng (Du Wenze) is head chef at the long established and very traditional Ah Yong’s Cafe & Restaurant 阿翁茶餐厅, where he is famed for his Hainan Chicken Rice. An old friend of the aged owner, Weng (Lu Haipeng) – who has early Alzheimer’s – Hong Yongcheng believes in properly cooked food with real taste. But with an ageing clientele the restaurant is stagnating. One day Weng decides to invite his eldest daughter, Tang Shiyong (Chen Yinmei), who’s studied hotel management in the US, to come back home to run the restaurant. Sparks immediately fly between her and Hong Yongcheng as she modernises both the place and its menu, promising the loyal but poorly paid staff wage increases if her plan works. After Weng asks everyone to get along with each other for the greater good, Tang Shiyong’s marketing methods start to pay off, attracting more young people. But as the quality of the food drops, and Tang Shiyong even changes their traditonal chicken supplier, Hong Yongcheng mulls an offer from a rival restaurant boss, Chen (Chen Peijiang). Then business is hit by adverse comments from an anonymous food blogger, Michelin, whose identity the staff are unable to discover. Eventually, to counter the bad publicity Tang Shiyong decides to go on the popular TV cookery show Prime Chef 美食煌. Hong Yongcheng is against the idea and she ends up on her own with just two assistants, her younger slacker sister Beancurd (Liu Qianwen) and junior cook Ji An (Guan Dongming).

REVIEW

Hong Kong comic actor Du Wenze 杜汶泽 [Chapman To] makes a bland directing debut with Malaysian-set foodie comedy Let’s Eat! 开饭啦!, an attempt to captalise on the success of his first Southeast Asian starring vehicle, King of Mahjong 麻雀王 (2015), directed by Malaysian hitmeister Zheng Jianguo 郑建国 [Adrian Teh]. Working again with Zheng’s Asia Tropical Films, Du follows in the footsteps of fellow Hong Kong actor Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung], who also made his directing debut (Hungry Ghost Ritual 盂兰神功, 2014) courtesy Zheng. However, Let’s Eat! doesn’t even measure up to that modest horror outing: Du’s script is lazy, slapdash and unoriginal, his direction utterly conventional, and his own lead performance too lowkey. In fact, the Cantonese-language comedy feels more like a Hong Kong production than a genuinely Malaysian one – there’s almost zero local content, or even exteriors to give a sense of place – though without the usual Hong Kong bounce, wit and energy.

Du plays the longtime head chef of a crusty old Kuala Lumpur eaterie that’s famous for its Hainan Chicken Rice and traditional ways. Enter the boss’ US hotel management-trained elder daughter to shake the place up and attract more young people, and cue plenty of aggro between her and Du’s chef. It’s a reliable if hardly original formula – percolated with nicely-shot cooking sequences – that should carve its own space in the foodie-film universe through its performances. But the comic chemistry hardly ever sparks, despite Du casting plenty of characters, including Hong Kong veteran Lu Haipeng 卢海鹏 as the old owner with Alzheimer’s, Hong Kong hip-hopster C Jun C君 [Zheng Shijun 郑诗君] as a cook, and goofy Singapore comedienne Mo Xiaoling 莫小玲 [Patricia Mok] as head waitress.

One funny sequence between Mo and veteran Singapore comedian Cheng Xuhui 程旭辉 [Henry Thia] as an old Hokkien gangster raises hopes briefly, but that’s about it. Even Singapore’s reliable Li Guohuang 李国煌 [Mark Lee], with whom Du starred in Mahjong, falls flat as a TV judge. Only the varied and engaged performance of Canadian-born Hong Kong TV actress Chen Yinmei 陈茵媺 [Aimee Chan], as the all-business daughter, keeps the movie going as the script bumps around from one plot contrivance to another. Even the cookery-show finale lacks any sense of excitement, and editing by Hong Kong’s Peng Zhengxi 彭正熙 [Curran Pang] should be tighter throughout.

Though never really engaging, Let’s Eat! does have a pleasant, laidback, often silly vibe that’s very Southeast Asian and makes it hard to really dislike. But Du and this kind of cast should be able to do much better than this.

CREDITS

Presented by Sonneratia Capital (MY), Asia Tropical Films (MY), Clover Films (SG). Produced by Asia Tropical Films (MY).

Script: Du Wenze [Chapman To], Lai Changming, Weng Xiuhong. Original story: Lai Changming, Weng Xiuhong. Photography: Yang Junlin. Editing: Chen Guoyao. Theme song: Tang Wei’en. Art direction: Zhang Wen. Styling: Shen Xuefen. Sound: Zheng Weiqian, Yang Lihui, Chen Yonghan. Visual effects: Gerald Lim (Basecamp VFX). Cooking advice: Chef Ming. Chicken-rice sushi creation: James Ho.

Cast: Du Wenze [Chapman To] (Hong Yongcheng/Sean), Chen Yinmei [Aimee Chan] (Tang Shiyong/Rosemary), Lu Haipeng (Yong, Tang Shiyong’s father), Mo Xiaoling [Patricia Mok] (Big Sister Shi), C Jun [Zheng Shijun] (Yacazai/Brushie, cook), Liu Qianwen (Doufuhua/Beancurd, Tang Shiyong’s younger sister), Guan Dongming (Ji An, cook), Xue Kaiqi [Fiona Sit] (Fiona, Hong Yongcheng’s girlfriend), Li Guohuang [Mark Lee] (himself), Lu Yong (TV MC), Cheng Xuhui [Henry Thia] (Big Brother Zuohui, Hokkien gang head), Ye Liangcai (Mike), Xu Liangyu (toyboy), Chen Peijiang (Chen, rival restaurant boss), Tian Mingyao (TV presenter), Su Yingying (Xiaolongbao).

Release: Malaysia, 4 Feb 2016; Singapore, 5 Feb 2016.