Should you watch this for free? If it’s on television next year during Chinese New Year, you can leave it on.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? No.
Secret ending? No but the credits are worth watching, if only to demonstrate how terrible the Mandarin dubbing was.
Running time: 96 minutes (~1.5 hours)
“Let’s Eat! (开饭啦!)” is a Chinese comedy about the drama that takes place behind the scenes at a cafe. A stuck up Millennial and an old-fashioned chef must learn to work together if their cafe is to succeed. It stars Chapman To (Dai Hung), Aimee Chan (Rosemary), Lo Hoi Pang (Ah Yong), Patricia Mok (Sister C), C Kwan (Brushie), Tommy Kuan (Gayon), and Daphne Low (Beancurd).
There’s no way to sugar coat how terrible “Let’s Eat! (开饭啦!)” is. The shots turn you off and the story leaves you with a sick feeling in your stomach. It’s clear that this badly written and poorly shot film was made solely to capitalise on the Chinese New Year season (which it has little relevance to). The final nail in the coffin is the atrocious Mandarin dubbing, which sees the voice actors competing to see who can scream the loudest.
Highlights
Food shots are delicious
I went to eat chicken rice after watching the film, which is testament to the power of its shots of Hainanese chicken rice. Its depiction of food (which isn’t limited to chicken rice) is simply mouthwatering, and definitely triggers hunger pangs. Unfortunately, this is the only highlight of the film.
Letdowns
Thoroughly dislikeable male protagonist
Chapman To’s facial expressions are straightforward and flat, with the occasional smirk thrown in. But the rest of his body behaves like a totally different creature, with huge reactions and gigantic arm motions. And by the end, you learn how insanely far he’s willing to go just to prove a point. It’s clear he cannot carry a movie on his own, even if that screen time is shared with a co-star.
Equally annoying female protagonist
Aimee Chan overacts as much as Chapman To underacts. She’s supposed to be a modern Millennial but ends up being a spoilt, shallow daughter of a rich man. Her father’s wealth makes no sense at all, given the premise of the barely profitable cafe. Despite all her pretenses of power, there’s very true authority or presence that she wields, so there’s nothing to endear you to her. You’re left with no sympathy for either main characters.
Horrible camera direction
Apart from tempting you with food, there’s no skill behind the camera. It frequently goes on disgusting close-ups of people chewing slowly on their food, with saliva spewing everywhere, negating the previously luscious meals that were shown earlier. If not, it’s overusing slow motion shots of people over-exaggerating their reactions to changes in the cafe. It’s bewilderingly bad, but how can you blame them when the same person who directs also has to be on the other side of the camera to act?
Terrible plot developments
The “twist” in the tale is utterly nonsensical. A magical resolution occurs when a song montage plays, and all differences are put aside because the lyrics give the characters such feels. And there’s that icky, incestuous romance which comes out of the blue and puts you off ever wanting to talk about the film again. It’s like someone put the script in the blender and actually used it.
“Let’s Eat! (开饭啦!)” is the result of the same person writing, directing and acting in the film (Chapman To). Everything suffers because there’s only so much time that one person can devote each of the roles.
“Let’s Eat! (开饭啦!)” opens in cinemas 5 February, 2016 (Friday).
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