God of Cookery (1996)


	God of Cookery		Return to Review Archive - G
	Year:	1996	Stephen Chow prepares to cook
	Director:	Stephen Chow Sing-Chi, Lee Lik-Chi
	Cast:	Stephen Chow Sing-Chi, Karen Mok Man-Wai, Ng Man-Tat, Vincent Kok Tak-Chiu, Stephen Au Kam-Tong, Lee Siu-Kei, Nancy Sit Ka-Yin, Law Kar-Ying, Liz Kong Hei-Man, Tats Lau Yi-Tat, Yuen King-Tan, Tin Kai-Man, Christy Chung Lai-Tai, Bat Leung-Gum, Lee Kin-Yan
	The Skinny:	Stephen Chow returns with this frenetic comedy that reflects all of Chow's earlier work, and does it extremely well. If only all Hong Kong comedies could be this good.
	Review by Kozo:	Stephen Chow is “Sik San,” the self-styled God of Cookery, an arrogant restaurateur who uses his image to launch substandard restaurants and poor quality instant food. He loses it all when he’s betrayed by his employees Ng Man-Tat (unrecognizable with white hair and sans moustache) and Vincent Kok, who becomes the new God of Cookery. At his wits end, Chow lands on Temple Street where he’s saved by the ugly Sister Turkey (Karen Mok), who uses her triad to help him regain his self-respect. They launch a small business marketing Chow’s new “Explosive Pissing Beef Balls.” Eventually, Chow must challenge Kok to regain his title, but not before he heads to Mainland China to learn the cooking fundamentals that he’s sorely lacking. God of Cookery parodies other cooking comedies like The Chinese Feast, as well as giving us the usual Chow themes, i.e. arrogant big shot falls from grace and achieves redemption. As Sik San, Chow doesn’t even have to sweat. He’s played this character time and time again. That said, he does it extremely well and Karen Mok is very good as the ugly Sister Turkey. The ending goes a bit astray, but that’s the only real complaint. A bit more stylishly told than Chow and Lee Lik-Chi’s earlier efforts (a lot of temporal shifting and narrative hijinks go on), this film doesn’t disappoint. It’s a mishmash of all the familiar Chow elements, and darn near perfect as Chow films go. (Kozo 1996)
	Availability:	DVD (Hong Kong) Region 0 NTSC CN Entertainment Widescreen Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks Dolby Digital 5.1 Removable English and Chinese Subtitles

		image courtesy of Universe Laser & Video Co., Ltd.
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