Hot Pot Artist
火锅艺术家
China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 97 mins.
Director: Cui Zhijia 崔志佳.
Rating: 5/10.
Comedy about a wannabe film artiste who’s actually better as a hotpot chef is pleasant, undemanding stuff, packed with online and sketch comedians.
STORY
A city in Sichuan, the present day. Originally from northeast China, Li Ruyi (Cui Zhijia) has always dreamed of being a film director, even though his last two movies flopped and his father-in-law, Yuan Fei (Zhang Qi), who runs a well-known hotpot restaurant, thinks he’s wasting his time as he’s actually a fine hotpot chef. Li Ruyi is close to wrapping shooting on his latest production, Grave Bag 天团之一席之地, when he hears from his production manager (Zhang Yiming) that the investor, Hai (Wang Zezong), has pulled out due to cashflow problems. Li Ruyi is told he needs about RMB1 million to finish the picture. Most of the crew have been paid off and, despite Li Ruyi’s protests that he’ll find the necessary money, reckon the production is now cancelled. However, the props staff, headed by Li Kunying (Li Kunying) assisted by Maomao (Diao Biao) and Ren Xue (Wang Tianyu), are still waiting to be paid. Li Ruyi tries to persuade them to stop dismantling an empty building they’ve dressed as a hotpot restaurant, saying production will continue and they’ll be paid. When debt collector Brother Seven (Qiao Shan) arrives to confiscate the building, Li Ruyi persuades him that it’s a real hotpot restaurant that he owns. Brother Seven and his men decide to have a meal there, so Li Ruyi persuades the props team to pose as the staff, secretly buying the dishes from a nearby restaurant. When other customers arrive, they find they have a real business that, if properly run, could make money, so the props team stays on for the time being. Li Ruyi, however, is still obsessed with finding the money to complete his film, though three friends – Zhang Lei (Wei Xiang), Jia (Ai Lun) and Da Chuan (Li Huichang) – all find excuses not to fund him. Li Kunying then tells him about an annual competition for the best hotpot restaurant in which the top prize is RMB1 million – currently held by Yuan Fei’s restaurant. Li Ruyi and his team name their restaurant Artist Hotpot 艺术家火锅, and business booms as Li Ruyi uses the cooking skills learned from his father-in-law. Soon it’s moved up from 23rd place to 4th place and then, after some special promotion, taken over 2nd place from Niuertao Hotpot 牛二淘火锅, run by Chen Hualiu (Yu Yang). All that now stands in the way of Li Ruyi winning the RMB1 million is his own father-in-law’s restaurant, Yuan’s Hotpot 袁家火锅.
REVIEW
Not so much a food movie, more a comic character study, Hot Pot Artist 火锅艺术家 is a pleasantly amusing comedy that doesn’t overstay its welcome but also doesn’t leave behind much aftertaste. It’s the first theatrical feature by comedian/writer/director Cui Zhijia 崔志佳, 35, who directed no less than six online features during 2021-23 and here assembles many of his regular pals again for a comic romp about a young man who dreams of being a famous film director but is actually much better at running a hotpot eaterie. Full of names from the online film world and sketch comedy, as well as a few bigger ones like Qiao Shan乔杉, Wei Xiang 魏翔 and Ai Lun 艾伦 (all in guest spots), it still feels more like an online production than a movie movie. Released as a start-of-the-year attraction, it took a very ho-hum RMB59 million.
Cui was born in Jilin, northeast China, and graduated from the performance department of the Film, TV & Theatre Academy of Beijing Contemporary Music Academy. After various theatre and TV spots, he played supporting roles in the films Jianbing Man 煎饼侠 (2015) and See You Tomorrow 摆渡人 (2016), but only finally found his niche by writing, directing and starring in his own online movies in the 2020s, often playing – like many comics born there – on his own northeastern background. In Hot Pot he plays a northeasterner who’s married into a family way down in the southwest in spicy hotpot land – basically Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, though it’s never mentioned by name. In some respects Hot Pot is a companion piece to Cui’s 2021 online movie The King of Barbecue 烧烤之王, co-directed with Wang Zi 王梓. Set somewhere in central/eastern China, it stars several of Cui’s regulars and also has a competitive storyline.
The crux of the movie is not, however, food but more the desire of the main character, Li Ruyi (Cui), to succeed at something. Unfortunately, he dreams of being an artist, a film director, though it’s abundantly clear to everyone except himself that he’s not much good at it. Only when the backer of his latest production pulls out during shooting is he eventually forced to face the fact that his true gift is as a chef – and a Sichuan hotpot chef, not a northern one, at that. This basically simple plot is served up in a sitcom-y way, garnished with plenty of guest appearances and beefed up by a subplot about competitive eateries that’s hardly new in Chinese cinema but strings out the central story in an acceptable way. Some routines – secretly buying the food from another restaurant, or a spy being misdirected backwards and forwards – are rather over-extended, but the guest spots mostly work (except for that by comedian Ai Lun, which overstays its welcome) and there’s little downtime in the film as a whole.
Cui, now slightly tubby (and joking about it), plays the central role as a naive but essentially likeable guy, a what-you-see-is-what-you-get northeasterner. Second-billed Jiao Junyan 焦俊艳 (so good in When Larry Met Mary 陆垚知马俐, 2016, and Hunt Down 长安道, 2019) is completely wasted in a small, under-developed role as his wife – one of only two female roles in the whole picture. But Cui regulars Li Kunying 李昆鹰 (also one of the four writers) as head of the props department, Yu Yang 于洋 as a rival restaurateur, and especially veteran Zhang Qi 张琪, putting on a broad Sichuan accent as the father-in-law, are all memorable among the sizeable character cast.
Technical credits are basic but clean, led by the widescreen photography of Zhao Xiaofeng 赵晓峰 (Super Villain 大“反”派, 2024) and the pleasant score by Chen Qi 陈琦.
CREDITS
Presented by Chengdu Film Group (CN), Beijing Jiaxi Cultural Media (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), China Film (CN). Produced by Beijing Hehe Pictures (CN).
Script: Cui Zhijia, Zhang Guannan, Wang Ziyang, Li Kunying. Photography: Zhao Xiaofeng. Editing: Tan Xiangyuan, Chen Fangmin. Music: Chen Qi. Art direction: Zhang Lili. Costumes: Xuan Yanyang. Styling: Li Jingyi. Sound: Mi Jia. Action: Liu Ziqi. Executive direction: Qian Ru.
Cast: Cui Zhijia (Li Ruyi), Jiao Junyan (Yuan Yuan), Zhang Qi (Yuan Fei), Yu Yang (Chen Hualiu, Niuertao restaurant owner), Li Kunying (Li Kunying, props department head), Diao Biao (Maomao, props assistant), Song Xiaobao (Xiaotian, Yuan Fei’s assistant), Qiao Shan (Qi Ge/Brother Seven), Wei Xiang (Zhang Lei), Ai Lun (Jia), Pan Binlong (Zhao Santiao, restaurant owner), Sun Yue (himself), Wen Song (martial-arts director), Zhang Yiming (production manager), Zhang Zidong (director of photography), Xiu Rui (A&E doctor), Yi Yunhe (Brother Seven’s sidekick), Bu Yi (Lin Yu’nan), Li Huichang (Da Chuan), Wang Zhazha (Xiaohao, Chen Hualiu’s assistant), Gu Zheng (Zhao Santiao’s wife), Zhai Yujia (Sun Yue’s assistant), Wang Zichen (policeman), Han Yezhou (acupuncturist), Fang Xiang (Zhang Lei’s assistant), Wang Tianyu (Ren Xue, props assistant), Wang Zezong (Hai, film’s investor), Xue Yuanyuan (Xue, Jia’s housekeeper).
Release: China, 3 Jan 2025.