18, 91 mins
The Chinese director Fruit Chan’s macabre satire of the beauty industry mixes up a grisly recipe for an elixir of youth. Strikingly shot and darkly comic, Dumplings tells of the vain and ageing of Hong Kong’s high society who pay covert visits to Aunt Mei (a charismatic turn from Ling Bai) to sample her special dim sum. Customers need a strong stomach to swallow the active ingredients, but the youthful glow that results is as addictive as any illicit high.
Extended from a short film, Chan’s script seems to run out of steam after the first hour or so. But the film is worth watching for its deliciously gruesome premise and for its perceptive skewering of the worst excesses of a society that covets youth and beauty. Richard Curtis should sue.
WENDY IDE