Review | Film review: Cook Up a Storm – Nicholas Tse, Jung Yong-hwa face off in culinary comedy
Director Raymond Yip dishes up a tested recipe that nourishes but with extra ingredients of Hong Kong’s property development and the city’s crumbling architectural heritage
2.5/5 stars
The culinary strengths of East and West go head-to-head in Raymond Yip’s cheerfully frivolous new comedy, when a high-end French restaurant opens on the same Hong Kong street as a traditional dai pai dong.
Though celebrated in their respective fields, no-frills street cook Sky (Nicholas Tse) and Michelin-approved chef Paul (South Korean Jung Yong-hwa) just can’t seem to get along, so when they both qualify for a high-stakes competition in Macau, the stage is set for a definitive cook-off.
Sky has managed to find a meaningful teacher in Uncle Seven (Ge You), but remains haunted by the memory of his father (Anthony Wong), a celebrity chef now revered as the “God of Cookery”, who abandoned him at a young age for being a poor cook. Meanwhile, Paul harbours a shocking secret that could jeopardise his internationally celebrated career as a master of new culinary technologies.
Following a long tradition in Hong Kong cinema, the film’s cooking sequences are staged almost as martial arts bouts, choreographed with precision and dexterity that are as elegant as inevitably mouth-watering.