Movie Review: The Butcher, The Chef And The Swordsman

The chef's tale is a foodie thriller. Photo / Supplied

With Doug Liman's name poised Tarantino-ishly as executive producer above the credits, this debut feature by Mongolian-born Chinese advertising whiz-kid Wuershan presents itself as an east-west hybrid.

And while it's a Fox-backed co-production, much of its action - especially in the first of its three storylines concerning the Porky Pig-like "Butcher" - plays like an old Warner Brothers cartoon - one set among the peasantry and warriors of feudal China.

True, it does offer a fair amount of hunger-inducing Chinese cooking scenes when it comes to "the chef" story. But they only duck served here is Daffy.

It's also set to a heavy metal meets hip-hop soundtrack, and uses occasional doodle animation and videogame fighting screens to perk up the busy confusing visuals.

If Liman was there to add his action movie smarts, then something sure got lost in the translation. And what's left is a madcap martial arts slapstick comedy that doesn't have time to put up a decent fight and isn't funny enough to make up for it.

But when the chop-socky gives way to chop suey - the central story of a young mute chef cooking for the imperial eunuch Liu on pain of death if the lavish dishes aren't up to it - this settles down for a while into an exotic foodie thriller with a neat twist.

Oh and some Star Wars allusions - Liu is clearly Jabba the Hutt and the young chef's mentor bears an uncanny resemblance to a pigtailed Yoda. So it's not without its fanboy fun.

And it takes quite a film to make Kung Fu Panda feel stately of pace and culturally aware by comparison. Oh and should it ever get a western remake, Jack Black is so the Butcher.

Stars: 3/5
Cast: Masanobu Ando, Kitty Zhang, Liu Xiaoye, Ashton Xu
Director: Wuershan
Rating: M (violence)
Running Time: 95 mins
Verdict: Chop socky meets chop suey with messy results