Kitchen1997. Written and directed by Yo Him. Based on a novel by Banana Yoshimoto. Hong Kong.
Kitchen consists of beautiful, rain-soaked images played under voice-over. Check it out:
Basically, here's what's happening: Aggie's grandma dies, and she goes catatonic. So Louie and his mom take her in and nurse her back to normalcy. And there's some twists. All the pretty stuff is cut against some comic relief scenes that look really ugly in comparison and didn't really work for me.
That's Louie. He thinks he looks good.
Although
Kitchen deals with some pretty heavy material, I didn't feel much emotional connection to the characters and barely reacted to the events that take place within. But it's a solid film, and I'd definitely watch other stuff directed by Ho Yim or shot by Hang-Sang Poon. I was never bored looking at it.
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Intimates1997. Directed by Chi Leung Cheung. Hong Kong.
Remember the framing device of
Titanic? Not dissimilar here. Young woman helps old woman on trip, old woman flashes back to her old life.
Intimates covers a lot of territory, from 90s Hong Kong to pre-cultural revolution China. It's kind of like an Amy Tan novel in that way.
The China section, as you can see, is way prettier. It's color-enriched by memory.
Twists happen here too, so I don't want to give a lot away. There are some scenes in the middle of this movie that got visceral reactions from me. I was, like, gasping and clutching a pillow over my face during one.
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Verdict: While
Kitchen is probably more interesting filmmaking, I give this match-up to
Intimates for actually making me care about the characters.