Dumplings (film)

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Dumplings (Gaau ji)

Miriam Yeung in a promotional still from Dumplings
Directed by Fruit Chan
Produced by Peter Chan,
Eric Tsang
Written by Fruit Chan,
Lilian Lee
Starring Miriam Yeung,
Tony Leung Ka Fai,
Bai Ling,
Pauline Lau,
Mi Mi Lee,
Miki Yeung
Music by Kwong Wing Chan
Cinematography Christopher Doyle
Editing by Fruit Chan,
Ki-hop Chan,
Sam-Fat Tin
Distributed by e-m-s the DVD-Company (Germany)
Release date(s) August 4, 2004 Germany
Running time 91 min
Language Cantonese, Mandarin
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Dumplings (餃子, Gaau ji) is a 2004 Hong Kong horror film, directed by Fruit Chan. It was expanded from a short segment in the horror compilation, Three... Extremes.

It was premiered in the United Kingdom during the Cardiff Film Festival, on November 11, 2005.

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[edit] Plot summary

A rich woman, Mrs. Li, is losing her attractiveness and longs for passion with her husband. In order to boost her image, she seeks out the help of Aunt Mei, a local chef. Mei cooks her some special dumplings which she claims to be effective for rejuvenation. From the very beginning, Mrs. Li was aware that Mei used unborn fetus "imported" from the abortion clinic where Mei used to work. She keeps seeking more potent remedies, until one day she is in luck: Mei had just performed a black market abortion operation on a schoolgirl five months pregnant who has been impregnated by her father. After Mrs. Li sneaks a look in the kitchen and sees the fetus, she is initially outraged and runs away, but later comes back. Mei makes the fetus into dumplings, which Mrs. Li devours. This has a wondrous effect on her libido as she goes into the hospital and makes love with her husband.

In a short flashback, we are shown the girl and her mother riding a bus home after the abortion. After getting off, the girl collapses on the sidewalk. With no one around, the mother can only watch as her daughter slips into unconsciousness. Muttering her last words, "I don't want to die..." she dies soon afterwards, presumably from a ruptured uterus.

Mrs. Li hosts a dinner party for her friends, who compliment her and wonder about her new-found beauty and looks. When she joins them, they claim there is a horrid fish-like smell in the air, which turns out to be from Mrs. Li herself. She excuses herself from the table and runs to the bathtub. Furious with Mei, Mrs. Li calls her, demanding what she has ingested. Mei merely claims the child of incest is the most potent. Curious at what his wife is yelling about, Mr. Li gets on the other line and overhears the conversation between her and Mei about what happened, and pays the latter a visit, inquiring into whether it really works. Mr. Li eats one of her dumplings and makes love to Mei, whom he finds out is 64, but with the body of a slender 35 year old. She puts her looks down to her cannibalism.

Soon, Mrs. Li realizes that she cannot stay young without eating Mei's dumplings. Ignorant of the fact that her husband cheated on her again for Mei, she pleaded the latter to continue to find her the most potent ingredients for the dumplings and promises to pay her handsomely. Presumably a mistress of Mr. Li at that point, Mei ignored Mrs. Li's plea and tore her cheque into pieces.

The next morning, we are shown police officers arriving at an apartment, where they find the mother, crying, bloodied and clenching a knife. Deeply upset about her daughter's death, she has stabbed her incestuous husband to death, furious at him for all the pain he had caused. It is presumed that on finding the wife and the dead husband, Mei's name dropped to the police, who raid her apartment. Mei, however, has already fled. It is revealed that Mr. Li has impregnated his masseuse and Mrs. Li pays her to have it aborted when she catches word of this, insisting to the doctor that the baby comes out alive. Mrs. Li then takes the fetus and turns it into dumplings. Mei, we learn, has been degraded to sell dumplings on the streets in Shenzhen.

[edit] Differences from the version in Three... Extremes

Whereas the shortened version retains much of the plot, the ending could be considered even more gruesome. The Masseuse's pregnancy is never mentioned; however, Mrs Li find she herself is two months pregnant, and aborts the fetus herself. The next shot is of Mrs. Li once again eating dumplings, apparently eating her own child.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

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