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when hearing the news that "the god of cookery" will be released this year, most people's first reaction may be: "re-screening?" unexpectedly, although we are already quite familiar with it, this is actually the first time that the hong kong comedy "the god of cookery" has landed in mainland theaters in 28 years, so this is not considered "reheating old food", at most it can only be regarded as "re-screening".

as one of stephen chow's representative works, "the god of cookery" has contributed too many classic "memes". we may forget that the male protagonist is named stephen chow, but we must still remember the beef balls that can play table tennis, the tear-jerking rice with fried eggs in the palm of the hand, and the sentence that has been passed down to this day, "you want to leave after offending the abbot."

perhaps because stephen chow's personal style was too strong when he was an actor and he was also quite prolific, it was easy for the audience to overlook that this was only the third work directed by stephen chow that year (the first two were "from beijing with love" and "forbidden city cop").

now when i look back at this movie, i seem to be even more shocked by the nonsensical plot. when i was young, i didn't care much about the logic of movies, so i easily accepted the abrupt turns in the plot; when i look back at it as an adult, i am more and more amazed at how stephen chow could write such a script.

the first half of the film is quite normal, with the master falling and fighting back. stephen chow, the "god of cookery", is famous for his sharp tongue, but he is actually arrogant and violent in private. he only gained the title of "god of cookery" by paying people to act with him. later, after being framed by his assistant and rival, he became notorious and went bankrupt quickly, so he had to hide in temple street to eat and drink for free. after getting acquainted with the lady boss of a food stall named "turkey", the two jointly launched the exploding beef balls, which became popular throughout hong kong. stephen chow made a comeback and was determined to regain the title of "god of cookery".

the plot in the second half is getting more and more out of control: in order to prevent stephen chow from making a comeback, his former assistant sent a killer who almost killed stephen chow who was looking for the chinese culinary institute. turkey bravely blocked the gun, and stephen chow fell off a cliff. he found that the chinese culinary institute was the back kitchen of shaolin temple. after several rounds of training, he finally mastered the cooking skills. in the god of cookery competition, the anran xiaohun rice should have won the championship, but was unexpectedly defeated by the opponent's shady dealings. finally, the immortal from heaven announced that he was the god of cookery who had come down to earth to practice, and punished the villain by the way.

it is hard to believe that such rich and seemingly unrelated elements can be mixed into the same movie, and the whole movie is only 92 minutes long. nowadays, it is rare to see a male protagonist as "bad" as stephen chow, and it is rare to see such a jumpy script. even the fastest-paced and most imaginative "safe escape from the 21st century" in recent years is just jumping back and forth in the fixed framework of two eras, playing the heroic dream of a middle-aged boy saving the world. but this "god of cookery" brings together a large-scale style change from falling from business to turning over, from learning cooking in shaolin temple to becoming a god, and even the unresolved love between turkey and stephen chow throughout.

i have to admit that this old film is still interesting and fast-paced today. the film even uses the technique of "ghostly repetition", which is a little old-fashioned now, but it was a highlight 28 years ago. there are several transitions that are well designed, and it can be seen that stephen chow was working hard to improve his directing skills at the time. for example, at the beginning, the fortune-teller xi gu said that the passerby was a "god descending to the earth", and the next shot was an action transition to the male protagonist. the subtle lines hinted at the male protagonist's true identity from the beginning. there is also the lawyer who scooped up a urinary beef ball in the last second, and the next second he reported to the villain that he had agreed to lend money to the male protagonist, as well as the constant flashbacks during the god of cookery competition and apprenticeship, which greatly accelerated the rhythm of the plot.

the reason why stephen chow's comedy is timeless is that even in the most exaggerated and nonsensical stories, he still pays attention to human nature. in the movie, stephen chow is an extremely profit-seeking villain, but his lines are realistic and intriguing: "the table should be as narrow as possible, the stools should be as small as possible, if the customer is not comfortable, he will leave after eating. the straw should be as thick as possible, the ice cubes should be as big as possible, after drinking one cup, he will drink a second cup." isn't this the "secret" of today's "table turnover rate"?

it has been five years since stephen chow's last new work "the new king of comedy" was released. five years later, apart from a brief glimpse of his current situation in variety shows, we can only watch the "re-screening" "the god of cookery" in the cinema. is stephen chow out of date? perhaps the king of comedy will always get old, but comedy should never be out of date.