Review: Chinese Feast is sort of a precursor to the well-known God of Cookery. Released two years prior to God of Cookery it would not be a surprise if Chinese Feast was the main inspiration for Stephen Chow. For those who are not familiar with either of these titles let me give you a run down of the concept behind the movie. Imagine a mixture between mystical martial arts and cooking, sort of the chef working magic to create incredible dishes. Seems like an odd concept doesn’t it but surprisingly it looks great and the finished dishes even better.

Magical cooking skills don’t make a movie on its own, you need a good story to back up the action else the movie wouldn’t be anything more than an episode of the Iron Chef. Chinese Feast has a very light hearted and comedic story that is enjoyable to follow. The initial premise starts off quite simple; the story manages to acquire a little more depth during the course of the movie but always remains simple and enjoyable. There wasn’t a dull moment in the film and the pace of the story is smooth. For the most part the humor in the movie is quite international but there will be some jokes that will not be so funny to anyone who is not familiar with Chinese comedy.

Another element that made this movie enjoyable to watch was the excellent cast. Mind you I find the secondary characters more enjoyable than two main characters. Don’t get me wrong Leslie Cheung and Anita Yuen both do an excellent performance but the kung fu chefs just stole the show. Kenny Bee, Zhao Wen-Zhou and Xiong Xin-Xin all of them performed incredibly well in their portrayal of master chefs. Zhao Wen-Zhou performance was probably the most enjoyable; he is very charismatic much like in the way Jet Li was when he used to make those old kung fu movies where he played the role of a monk.

The general visual aspect of the movie was quite ordinary, there were no elaborate settings but for such a movie it fits in with what the story calls for. One element that was especially incredible to watch was the cooking scenes. It sounds a little funny calling a cooking scene exciting but it is the truth. It’s hard to explain but these scenes managed to integrate the swiftness of martial arts, the wisdom of philosophy and the value of tradition. They were truly a beauty to watch and probably the strongest point to this film. In addition to the actually cooking the finished dishes were quite something to look at, each of them a work of art on its own.