Stephen Chow is Hong Kong’s top chef until he’s brought down by arrogance and his enemies. He joins a pair of quarreling street vendors in creating the infamous ‘Exploding Pissing Beef Balls’ that puts him back on track. But to reclaim his position as God of Cookery, he must hone his culinary skills at Shaolin Temple and compete in the ultimate cooking contest.

Making a mockery of cooking, kung fu, and more is Stephen Chow as The God of Cookery. Like Shaolin Soccer, Chow hits on a hugely popular subject and runs with it using his patented rowdy sarcasm and brilliant comic timing. Yet in many ways, the film is a lesser version of Shaolin Soccer. The plot is essentially the same with Chow as the underdog who rises to meet a challenge with the help of kung fu. A number of the gags are laugh-out-loud funny, but much of the content from characters to action is not as well-defined or cohesive.

Chow starts out on top as Hong Kong’s premiere chef, but it’s all a sham. Chow delights in abusing his staff who are paid to make him look good while he cheats the public and keeps other chefs down. This creates enemies, one of whom sabotages the opening of his new restaurant with bad beef. Another is Bull Tong (Vincent Kok), an ambitious and talented chef who takes the opportunity to discredit Chow’s mediocre cooking skills. Having lost his lofty position and reached rock bottom, Chow wanders the streets until he comes upon a tough beef ball vendor named Twin Dagger Turkey (Karen Mok) who sports a nasty facial scar and a monstrous overbite. She takes pity on him and he returns the favor by settling her feud with a ‘Pissing Squid’ vendor by suggesting they combine their products. The ‘Exploding Pissing Beef Ball’ is born and soon becomes a hugely profitable venture. Once again a success, Chow looks to reclaiming his place as ‘The God of Cookery’ and travels to mainland China in search of a famous culinary school. It turns out to be Shaolin Temple where Chow masters cooking and kung fu in record time. He returns just in time to take on Bull Tong in a contest to determine the next ‘God of Cookery.’

Chow’s brand of caustic humor is such that viewers generally love it or hate it. That said, many of his films can be somewhat uneven. But one of Chow’s strengths is improving on past efforts and The God of Cookery exhibits this skill. The broad humor and plots of his past films are boiled down to a fast-paced narrative sprinkled with more accessible and genuinely funny comedy. The surreal or dream-like sequences are one of his trademark gimmicks and they also make up the best scenes in the film. Whether a rugged Lee Siu-kei is frolicking on a beach in a toga, a bookish Nancy Sit is rolling over a giant slab of beef, or Shaolin ‘bronzemen’ beat Chow mercilessly while mugging for the camera, Chow gets the most out of the situations. Less successful jokes either do not translate well into English or simply act as filler.

It wouldn’t be surprising to discover that the popular Japanese series, Iron Chef proved to be some inspiration for this film. The two cook-offs at the beginning and end of the film share minor similarities. But despite some scenes of food preparation and colorful presentation, Chow doesn’t get hung up on the in’s and and out’s of cooking or judging the finished dishes. In fact, the last contest devolves into non-CGI wire-fu and fantasy nonsense. This would be acceptable is it was funny or exciting, but neither is the case and the film ends with a fizzle.

This film isn’t the first use of cooking as an allegory for martial arts conflict. Food preparation was often used as a form of training for students in films like Shaolin Temple and Operation Scorpio. Tsui Hark’s The Chinese Feast (1995) is probably the best example of martial arts battles reduced to equally thrilling and competitive cooking.

The God of Cookery has a lot going for it and should be considered a decent precursor to Shaolin Soccer for viewers looking for something similar. Expectations should be lower, but don’t let that stop you from digging in. Tasty Chow morsels await.

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