Dumplings (film)
Encyclopedia
Dumplings 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.
s which she claims to be effective for rejuvenation. From the very beginning, Mrs. Li was aware that Mei used unborn fetuses "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 on a girl 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 disgusted 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 has sex with her husband.
In a short flash-back, we are shown the girl and her mother riding a bus home after the abortion. After getting off, the girl collapses on the side-walk. 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 newly found beauty and youth. 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 bath-tub. Furious with Mei, Mrs. Li calls her, demanding to know what she has ingested. Mei merely claims that an inbred child 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 has violent sex with Mei, whom he finds out to be sixty-four years old, but with a form like a slender thirty-year-old woman. She attributes her looks to her cannibalism
.
Soon, Mrs. Li realizes that she can not stay young without eating Mei's dumplings. Ignorant of her husband's love affair with Mei, she pleads with her 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 ignores Mrs. Li's plea and tears her check into pieces.
The next morning, police officers arrive at an apartment, where they find the mother, crying, bloodied and clenching a knife. Upset about her daughter's death, she has stabbed her incestuous husband nearly to death. It is implied that upon finding the wife and the dead husband, the police find out Mei's identity and raid her apartment. Mei, how ever, has already fled. It is revealed that Mr. Li has impregnated his masseuse. When Mrs. Li catches word of this, she tracks down the pregnant masseuse, planning on having her abort the fetus. Although the young masseuse is comfortable with her pregnancy and wishes to have the child, Mrs. Li convinces her to have it aborted in exchange for a large sum of money. Mrs. Li insists to the doctor that the baby should come out alive. Mrs. Li then takes the fetus and turns it into dumplings, ingesting her husband's child. Mei, we learn, ends up selling dumplings on the streets in Shenzhen.
, the endings differ. The short film focuses solely on Mrs. Li's quest for rejuvenated youth and does not include the masseuse or the subplot involving Mr. Li and Aunt Mei's love affair. Aunt Mei leaves her home for her own reasons, rather than due to a police raid. Consequently, in place of the masseuse's pregnancy, Mrs Li finds that she herself is two months pregnant with a child she was told she would never have. After learning she can no longer get dumplings from Aunt Mei, she decides to do some thing drastic in order to keep her youthful looks. The final scene is of Mrs. Li, in the bath-tub where she has just aborted her own fetus, licking blood from her cheek, having eaten her own child.
2004 in film
The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
Hong Kong
Cinema of Hong Kong
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China, and the cinema of Taiwan...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, directed by Fruit Chan
Fruit Chan
Fruit Chan Gor is an independent Hong Kong Second Wave screenwriter, filmmaker and producer, who is best known for his style of film reflecting the everyday life of Hong Kong people. He is well known for using amateur actors in his films...
. It was expanded from a short segment in the horror compilation, Three... Extremes
Three... Extremes
Three... Extremes is a 2004 international East Asian horror film collaboration consisting of three segments by three directors from three countries. It is a sequel to, and follows the concept of Three , this time with more established directors...
.
It was premiered in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during the Cardiff Film Festival, on November 11, 2005.
Plot summary
A rich woman, Mrs. Li, is losing her good looks and longs for passion with her husband, who is later revealed to be having a love affair with his younger and more attractive masseuse. In order to boost her image, she seeks the help of Aunt Mei, a local chef. Mei cooks her some special dumplingJiaozi
Jiǎozi 餃子 or 饺子 , bánh bột luộc , gyōza , Mo:Mo: or Momocha म:म: or ममचा , or pot sticker is a Chinese dumpling widely spread to Japan, Eastern and Western Asia.Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into...
s which she claims to be effective for rejuvenation. From the very beginning, Mrs. Li was aware that Mei used unborn fetuses "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 on a girl five months pregnant
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
who has been impregnated by her father
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
. After Mrs. Li sneaks a look in the kitchen and sees the fetus, she is initially disgusted 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 has sex with her husband.
In a short flash-back, we are shown the girl and her mother riding a bus home after the abortion. After getting off, the girl collapses on the side-walk. 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
Uterus
The uterus or womb is a major female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to one or both fallopian tubes, depending on the species...
.
Mrs. Li hosts a dinner party for her friends, who compliment her and wonder about her newly found beauty and youth. 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 bath-tub. Furious with Mei, Mrs. Li calls her, demanding to know what she has ingested. Mei merely claims that an inbred child 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 has violent sex with Mei, whom he finds out to be sixty-four years old, but with a form like a slender thirty-year-old woman. She attributes her looks to her cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
.
Soon, Mrs. Li realizes that she can not stay young without eating Mei's dumplings. Ignorant of her husband's love affair with Mei, she pleads with her 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 ignores Mrs. Li's plea and tears her check into pieces.
The next morning, police officers arrive at an apartment, where they find the mother, crying, bloodied and clenching a knife. Upset about her daughter's death, she has stabbed her incestuous husband nearly to death. It is implied that upon finding the wife and the dead husband, the police find out Mei's identity and raid her apartment. Mei, how ever, has already fled. It is revealed that Mr. Li has impregnated his masseuse. When Mrs. Li catches word of this, she tracks down the pregnant masseuse, planning on having her abort the fetus. Although the young masseuse is comfortable with her pregnancy and wishes to have the child, Mrs. Li convinces her to have it aborted in exchange for a large sum of money. Mrs. Li insists to the doctor that the baby should come out alive. Mrs. Li then takes the fetus and turns it into dumplings, ingesting her husband's child. Mei, we learn, ends up selling dumplings on the streets in Shenzhen.
Differences from the version in Three... Extremes
Where as the extended version retains much of the plot from the short film in Three... ExtremesThree... Extremes
Three... Extremes is a 2004 international East Asian horror film collaboration consisting of three segments by three directors from three countries. It is a sequel to, and follows the concept of Three , this time with more established directors...
, the endings differ. The short film focuses solely on Mrs. Li's quest for rejuvenated youth and does not include the masseuse or the subplot involving Mr. Li and Aunt Mei's love affair. Aunt Mei leaves her home for her own reasons, rather than due to a police raid. Consequently, in place of the masseuse's pregnancy, Mrs Li finds that she herself is two months pregnant with a child she was told she would never have. After learning she can no longer get dumplings from Aunt Mei, she decides to do some thing drastic in order to keep her youthful looks. The final scene is of Mrs. Li, in the bath-tub where she has just aborted her own fetus, licking blood from her cheek, having eaten her own child.
Cast
- Bai LingBai LingBai Ling is a Chinese actress known for her work in films such as The Crow, Red Corner and Wild Wild West, and in TV series such as Entourage and Lost. In 2011 she appeared in the fifth season of the VH1 reality television series Celebrity Rehab with Dr...
as Mei - Miriam YeungMiriam YeungMiriam Yeung, RN, is a Hong Kong actress and Cantopop singer. Before entering the entertainment business, she was a registered nurse at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong. She studied at the Holy Family Canossian College Kowloon...
as Mrs. Li - Tony Leung Ka-faiTony Leung Ka-FaiTony Leung Ka-fai is a three-time Hong Kong Film Award-winning Chinese film actor.Because he is often confused with actor Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony", while Tony Leung Chiu-Wai is known as "Little Tony", nicknames which correspond to the actors' respective...
as Mr. Li - Pauline Lau as Masseuse
- Miki YeungMiki YeungMiki Yeung is a Hong Kong cantopop singer and actress. In 2002, she joined the cantopop music idol group Cookies. In 2005, her film b420 was awarded the Grand Prix Award: The 19th Fukuoka Asian Film Festival...
as Kate - Mi Mi Lee