Film review: Hunger

Chutimon ‘Aokbab’ Chuengcharoensukying stars as Aoy in the Netflix film Hunger. Photo / Netflix

Hunger (M, 146 mins). Now streaming on Netflix, in Thai with subtitles or dubbing

Directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri

Enticing close-ups of food preparation set the scene in fictional famous restaurant Hunger’s upmarket Bangkok kitchen, where a team of highly disciplined sous chefs and their ruthless boss Chef Paul (Nopachai Jayanama) are busy at work.

Then we’re off to a poor part of Bangkok, to a popular family-run noodle café, a step above a hawker stall in a crowded street, where the cook is Aoy (Chutimon ‘Aokbab’ Chuengcharoensukying) who’s been taught by her father to use a wok over fire. She’s brilliant at it.

There are similarities to Mark Mylod’s thriller The Menu, Bong Joon-ho’s award-winning Parasite and Ruben Östlund’s satirical Triangle of Sadness, but Hunger runs deeper than any of those. Not only does it show how the poor eat to survive while the rich eat to try to satisfy their limitless craving, but it also looks at what drives people, rich and poor.

Director Sitisiri Mongkolsiri deftly contrasts rich and poor. One of Chef Paul’s sous chefs Tone (Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya) invites Aoy to come to Hunger, where he knows she will fit in. She’s too good, he says, for a noodle café. She hesitates, but there’s a gleam in her eye when she meets Chef Paul. He sees her, knows she wants to be special. He also knows that she won’t be special unless he teaches her all of his lessons.

Aoy is keen to learn, determined to get to the top, but there’s always the pull of home. She believes that love and home can be embodied in cooking, but Chef Paul disagrees. He believes only in himself, and his ability to make people want his food. This conflict is central to the film’s dramatic tension.

Aoy’s friends struggle with the daily grind of staying alive. Across town, the rich indulge themselves in every possible way, following the next big name. Tos (Varit Leesavan), a marketing whizz and rival to Chef Paul, sees Aoy’s potential and is ready to catch her when she dismisses herself from Chef Paul’s team after Chef Paul goes a step too far in the jungle.

The film is beautifully structured, moving from Aoy’s noodles with their outstanding aromas and tastes, a metaphor for what’s real, to Chef Paul’s pretentious culinary constructions, which impress his rich clientele but are essentially form over substance.

After two scenes in hospital, Chef Paul having been stabbed by a frustrated underling and Aoy’s father having suffered a heart attack, followed by a tragic family incident and some behind-the-scenes skulduggery by Tone, Aoy and Chef Paul have a final head-to-head at a lavish birthday party.

Like the two contestants in a MasterChef finale, Aoy plays fair, but Chef Paul, true to character, plays only to win and will do anything to see that he does.

Hunger is a good drama that will appeal to Chef’s Table fans as well as to a wider audience, although a few gory scenes make it unsuitable for kids.

Highly recommended

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