Whatever happened to KUNG FU CHEF with Aibon?

[Madara]

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=BWD-1923



Here's the page for KUNG FU CHEFS, as it's listed on CDJapan, which gives an August 7, 2009 release, but under "Availability," they say: "Release Cancelled"!



What's up with this film? Did it ever come out in Hong Kong? I have a friend in HK who reviews films and I asked her about it last December and she gave me a very terse "no"! And I have a feeling that even if it DID come out since then, she'd still tell me "no!" So I need another source of info.



Earlier this afternoon I got an e-mail about the "Hong Kong Never Dies" section of the New York Asian Film Festival, devoted to recent HK films, and KUNG FU CHEF wasn't included, so I e-mailed them and asked why not.



Poor Aibon gets no respect.

[ostrich]

According to imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1372692/ ), It was released in February, and only in China, Singapore, and Australia.



It was apparently not a very good movie at all...



Apparently, it doesn't (didn't?) open in Hong Kong until May, 2009 (http://asianuniverse.net/forums/Kung_Fu_Ch...ng_t138290.html ). So that would explain why it isn't in the New York Asian Film Festival.

[Madara]

[quote name='ostrich' post='65054' date='Jun 2 2009, 07:26 AM']According to imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1372692/ ), It was released in February, and only in China, Singapore, and Australia.



It was apparently not a very good movie at all...



Apparently, it doesn't (didn't?) open in Hong Kong until May, 2009 (http://asianuniverse.net/forums/Kung_Fu_Ch...ng_t138290.html ). So that would explain why it isn't in the New York Asian Film Festival.[/quote]



Thanks. I'd completely forgotten to check IMDB before doing my post. The last time I'd checked IMDB, there hadn't even been an entry for the film.

[Madara]

I was in Chinatown on Saturday and found a DVD (Region 3, PAL) of KUNG FU CHEFS at one of the stores. I checked out some scenes at home. Aibon seems to be in it a lot. The DVD has two tracks, Mandarin and Cantonese. Her character speaks a lot and at quite a fast pace, so it's obvious she was dubbed on both tracks. Is the movie any good? Is her performance any good? I'll let you know when I've had a chance to watch it. But she looks good, if you ask me.

[Madara]

Wow, it took 46 days, but I finally watched KUNG FU CHEFS last night. Lightweight movie, but not bad. Aibon is delightful and charming as always. She's a supporting character, billed fourth in the credits. She's in a lot of scenes but she doesn't get a whole lot to do except frequently comment on other people's behavior. She plays the sister of the female owner of a restaurant which becomes the focal point of the film after unemployed master chef Wong Ping-Yee (Sammo Hung) signs on as head chef and wandering kung fu/cooking student Ken (played by Vanness Wu) signs on as his assistant and the restaurant enters a famous "King of Chinese cooking" contest. I liked the cooking scenes far more than the fight scenes, which weren't really necessary. Sammo cooks up some scrambled eggs in on scene and I wish all the short order cooks at the diners I go to would follow his methods. Those eggs looked so delicious.



Aibon's in one fight scene in a supermarket and she's doubled in the more acrobatic bits but gets to do a few good fight moves herself. She has one food prep scene where she creates a sauce and Sammo shows her how to spice it up. She has one eating scene, where she gets to sample the roast duck in a contest between Sammo and the restaurant's current chef. It reminded me of all the great food bits on "Hello Morning" and the scenes where Aibon and Nono got to eat. I wish they'd given her more eating scenes here. That would have made it a much better movie for me. Her character, Ying, becomes something of a (chaste) love interest for the young hero, but it never gets beyond mild flirtation.



I sampled both soundtracks, Mandarin and Cantonese, and settled on Mandarin because the actress dubbing Aibon on it sounded more like her than the one on the Cantonese track. Still, Aibon seemed to be having a good time. I'm guessing the director simply told her, "Be yourself," and she simply followed that advice.



Cindy Ho is credited as "Japanese translator."



I'm going to take some screen grabs and post them on my blog sometime this week.





P.S. I was looking up the film's cast members to write up a review for another site and I learned that the kung fu actor who plays the villain, Fan Siu-Wong, was born June 19, 1973, the exact same birthdate as Yuko Nakazawa.

[thamychan]

Thank you for the review! I was curious about that movie but I'm still not too sure if it is worth buying...

[Madara]

I did my blog entry on KUNG FU CHEFS, complete with screen grabs.



Here are previews:



Aibon eating (what else would she be doing in a movie like this?)





Aibon in action

[Ap2000]

Why didn't you put the DVD into your PC and make screenshots from there ?

(or do DVDs have some protection that don't allow that ? I have no idea, I never tried it lol)

[thamychan]

The "Aibon in action" picture is just amazing, she seems to be having so much fun...!

[Madara]

[quote name='Ap2000' post='70243' date='Oct 16 2009, 09:31 AM']Why didn't you put the DVD into your PC and make screenshots from there ?

(or do DVDs have some protection that don't allow that ? I have no idea, I never tried it lol)[/quote]



I just tried it. (I brought the disc to put into my office computer to try it.) Surprisingly, the Region 3 PAL disc plays fine in my MAC, but I don't know how to take screen grabs from it. My daughter told me what keys to press and here's the message I get: "Screen grabs are unavailable during DVD playback."



P.S. Actually, I spoke too soon. The disc froze up after 1 min. & 18 sec. of play and it now says it won't play.

[AquaChan]

Hum try cmd+shift+3 for the whole screen, or cmd+shift+4 to select a part. It should work...

[Madara]

[quote name='AquaChan' post='70418' date='Oct 20 2009, 11:58 AM']Hum try cmd+shift+3 for the whole screen, or cmd+shift+4 to select a part. It should work...[/quote]



Exactly what my daughter told me. I tried both and got the same "screen grabs unavailable" message each time.

It's a Region 3/PAL disc and shouldn't play at all in my computer anyway.

[Vikitty]

VLC works pretty well for running DVDs and screencapping.

[Ap2000]

[quote name='Madara' post='70428' date='Oct 20 2009, 05:39 PM']It's a Region 3/PAL disc and shouldn't play at all in my computer anyway.[/quote]



PCs usually have no problem with playing any DVD. I have japanese, german and some hong kong ones, all run without any problems.

I don't know about apple stuff though, they tend to have some weird incompatible thing going on that costs you even more than the thing that actually works. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... >/rofl.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

[Madara]

My main Chinatown dealer got another edition of KUNG FU CHEFS, a 2-disc edition with a "Making of" feature on it. So I picked that up. (Apparently the earlier one I got may have been a bootleg.) Aibon's prominently featured in the "Making of," although it's not subtitled in English. She's shown getting fitted out with wires for her different stunts. And she speaks her lines in Japanese during the shooting. I couldn't tell which one was Cindy Ho, her translator. Those shots go by too quickly. But I did pick out the two great action directors Yuen Cheung Yan and Yuen Shun Yi. (Yuen Cheung Yan staged the action scenes for the Charlie's Angels movies and even appears briefly at the beginning of the second one.) Aibon seems to be having a good time on the set.



P.S. When I get a chance, I'll try to get some new, improved screen grabs from the newer DVD.

[Madara]

I'll add a bunch of new screen grabs to my blog on Wed., but here's a preview:



As adorable as they get:





From the "Making of" clip, Aibon rigged with wires for her supermarket stunt:





Aibon ducks a blow in the supermarket fight:

[Madara]

They're up now.

[cromartiedropout]

Thanks to Madara for reviewing the movie, and thanks to AquaChan for teaching me how to screen cap on my Mac! I've had my Mac for like two years now and I've never been able to figure out how to screen cap until now XD



I would like to see the movie, even though Aibon is dubbed over, just because she looks so damn cute in it (>.<)