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Simply A Masterpiece

Great Film overall

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Dumplings, based on the short film by the same name from Three... Extremes, is a Hong Kong horror film telling the tale of Aunt Mei (Bai Ling), a woman living in a small apartment in the seedier part of town, who has the skills and knowledge to make very special dumplings, rumored to bring youth and health to their eater. And thus she's approached by Mrs. Li (Miriam Yeung), who has begun to see visible signs of aging on her face. But what is in these dumplings?Dumplings has a fantastic setup and first act. Bai Ling shines in the role of Aunt Mei, a woman looking like a young woman in her late twenties, but her mannerism and way of speaking telling a different story. Her first scene with Mrs. Li is full of tension, mystique, threat and promise of horrors to come. Unfortunately, the rest of the film fails to match that first scene and it's all downhill from there as the movie starts to focus on Mrs. Li's struggles, which are nowhere near as interesting. And from a storytelling point that was the obvious choice as Mei is the sort of character you don't want to show too much or she starts to lose her edge, but at the same time you have to make the main focus interesting enough to tide you over until you get back to Mei.Admittedly Mrs. Li gets a bit better towards the end and we do get to see Mei every now and then, but ultimately this means that we have a killer opening, boring middle part and a pretty good ending. Making this disappointingly average film, when it could have been a horror masterpiece. I haven't seen the short film, but I assume it would be better thanks to tighter narrative.

Now this is my least favorite segment in "Three Extremes", but seeing how the it's a lot longer than the short segment made me enjoy it a lot more. Now some horror movies are better left with some of the mystery surrounding it and is better left with leaving some stuff out. I personally think that wasn't the case for this film, although I thought some of the stuff in this extended version would have been better if left out, majority of the stuff is a real plus. A lot of the dialogue is interesting that was left out in "Three Extremes", and makes you think about women and there struggle to look young. The film also deals with the one child policy in China and questions how far would someone people go in order to look young. The cinematography was good and it's a well acted, well paced film with a pretty good horror plot. I wasn't so sure about the extended version, but glad it came about. It's a engrossing and disturbing yet interesting while having other elements that will keep most horror fans pleased.7.6/10

The absolutely delicious Ling Bai plays a sixty-odd year old cook whose dumplings are famous for their regenerative qualities. Bai's performance is memorable and really helps carry the film along. Miriam Yeung Chin Wah stars as the famous television star who craves for her youth and will do anything she can to regain her former looks and rekindle the relationship with her husband, Tony Leung Ka Fai.This is a very un-Hollywood production and shows the difference that Asian movies bring to the cinema. "Dumplings" is disturbing in its taboo-breaking subject matter and unflinching in its depiction of events. Rather than deliver "Ringu"-style supernatural shocks and surprises, "Dumplings" is a much more reality-based movie with only traces of the magical included. Slow-paced but atmospheric and beautifully produced, this won't be to all tastes.A strong 7 out of 10. Fans of category III films "The Untold Story" and "There Is A Secret In My Soup" should like this one.

I am new to the Asia Extreme films (the first I saw was Oldboy). I enjoyed it because it evokes a sense of creepiness missing from American made films for a long time. Since I have only seen the short film version of the movie; I feel a bit disadvantaged to comment. That having been said, it was well acted and paced. I will be checking more of these out in the future as an alternative to the redundant "horror" being turned out by Hollywood. Spoiler (maybe).... I believe the woman's lengthened tongue in the final scene is meant to symbolize the monster that her vanity created rather than an actual mutation of her actual tongue.