Synopsis An international culinary competition becomes a battleground between rival cooks, one famous for his Cantonese street food and the other a Michelin-starred chef trained in France. But their rivalry takes an unexpected turn when they discover a common foe and combine their skills in a fusion of East and West. Remove Ads. 5user reviews An international culinary competition becomes a battleground between rival cooks, one famous for his Cantonese street food and the other a Michelin-starred chef trained in France. But their rivalry takes an unexpected turn when they discover a common foe and combine their skills in a fusion of East and West. Aculinary competition becomes a battleground as a famous Cantonese street-food chef goes up against his Michelin-starred, classically trained rival. Genre: Drama. Original Language: Chinese aVxjV2L. Cook Up a Storm 決戰食神 is a Hong Kong movie specially catered to premiere during Lunar Chinese New Year early this year 2017. The comedy film comprise of various actors from different country and Chinese regions. We have actor Nicholas Tse from Hong Kong, Jung Yong Hwa of CNBLUE from South Korea, Ge You and Tiffany Tang from China. It has been a long time since I have watched a Hong Kong movie. They haven’t made many quality movies or dramas, and hence, we broke up. If it weren’t for Jung Yong Hwa and his disappearance from the screen for almost 3 years, I wouldn’t be bothered. Besides, from the preview trailer, the show didn’t look that bad… PLOT Paul Ahn Jung Yong Hwa is a Korean-Chinese chef who excels in French cuisine. He decided to take up an offer as the executive chef in a newly open French restaurant in Hong Kong. His girlfriend/assistant chef Mi Yu Michelle Bai also follows. Opposite Paul’s restaurant is a 30 years old Chinese restaurant owned by Uncle Qi Ge You, but currently run by his student, Gao Tian Ci Nicholas Tse. Paul and Tian Ci’s rivalry began on the day they first met at the fish market, and it worsen when customers from both sides hinder each others’ businesses. At the very same time, the neighbourhood is undergoing redevelopment, the old shops and restaurants are threathened to relocate, including Qi Restaurant. Both Paul and Tian Ci coincidentally join a cooking contest, hence it was decided that the winner gets to stay and loser must pack their bags and close the restaurant. However, Tian Ci had another reason for joining the contest; he wanted to prove himself to his father, Gao Feng Anthony Wong, the 2 consecutive winner and holder of the title, Culinary God. COMMENTS The good First off, so glad to see Yong Hwa on screen acting again after The Three Musketeers. More good news is looks like he will return with a 12 episodes drama, The Package, to be air on jTBC. It’s pre-produced; he and his co-stars have already completed filming so let’s hope the show get an air date soon. 🙂 The not-so-great and the bad parts After not watching any Hong Kong movies for over 10 years, I kind of wish they would give me something new and refreshing. That didn’t happen. The execution of the plot is very typical and the only solution the scriptwriter can come up with solving the problem is—let’s have both chefs do a one-on-one on knife skills in the middle of the street. Like really? It’s sooo…I don’t know, gangster style? It reminds me of Young & Dangerous where all characters in it can’t sit down and communicate, everything must be solved with a fist and knife. In this instance, there was no fighting between the chefs, but the people around them would have and behave just like thugs. I am hardly convinced a well-educated man and a 3-stars chef would agree to showcase his skills on a middle of the street. Surely Paul has more class than this! I wonder if Yong Hwa is cursed in his acting career. In the beginning of his projects, his characters seem equally as important as the leading actor, but when we reach the latter half, his presence or character’s story diminished and his screen time reduced. It’s the same for this movie, too. It would have been more interesting if Paul and Tian Ci inspire each other and work together to create a fusion of Chinese-French cuisine, and prove themselves against those who betray or look down on them. I didn’t mind they added the father and son’s story, but shift in focus in the end to the whole father and son’s contest was ridiculous. One of the problems with Hong Kong movies is their obsession in always making their main lead look cool’ that they forget in certain scenarios, there are other aspects more important that one must uphold a professional chef should show his professionalism, respect and good ethics. Tian Ci walked off the stage twice in two separate contests. He should have been disqualified on the account of disrespecting his fellow opponenets, the panel judges, the cooking contest organisation and audiences. Even though this is a show’, I can’t overlook the director’s execution of both these scenes. The attempt of looking cool actually makes his character comes off offensively impolite. CONCLUSION There is no lasting strong impression in the acting department. The script lacks depth and innovation. But it’s actually not that bad of a movie, and it’s a no brainer sort of entertainment good for relaxing and winding down an exhausting day. But it’s just not a movie where you would go away feeling Wow, that’s awesome’ and want to go back for more. It was forgettable. I do, however, like the presentation of the food—Chinese or French, either way, I wouldn’t mind be the judges on the panel. Source Mtime Completed SerpentineJ6 people found this review helpful Story 10 Acting/Cast 10 Music 10 Rewatch Value 10 This is my completely biased review, but I love this movie. I watched it on a plane to China, and everything, from the story to the characters to the visuals and music, arrested my attention- personally, I like watching food shows, so that was most of the reason I clicked on this drama, but the characters quickly became my favorite part of the movie. My only complaint is that it's too short! It's not that original an idea, and it's not that shocking of an execution, but between the visuals and the characters' interactions, I think you'd be hard-pressed to say this movie moves slowly or isn't interesting. It's definitely worth a watch, even if you're just looking to kill an hour and a half! Read More Was this review helpful to you? Completed Adeuxalice2 people found this review helpful Story Acting/Cast Music Rewatch Value This movie is fast food The premise of this movie is very simple. East vs. West - whose food can truly be considered best? One of the many East-West dichotomy movies to come out in recent years with the main goal of proving that Eastern culture is just as good or in some aspects superior to Western culture. So let's get the biggest problem with this movie out of the way first The writing is absolutely atrocious. So much so that I genuinely had to pause the movie more than once to take a second to take in just how badly written those scenes were. Did anyone try to read this script out loud before subjecting the poor cast to this? It reads as if the writers had about two days to put together one of the most generic, over-the-top and cheesy cooking rivalry movies I've ever seen. The main two actors are really doing their most to turn this into something, anything at all, but not even the admittedly charming rivalry/ friendship between the two main cooks can save this script from its sheer stupidity. The worst offenders by far are the flashback scenes that get sprinkled in here and there that are also accompanied by some of the most generic violin pieces that give me "googled royalty free sad music" energy. But with all that being said, despite the massive script problems and the lacklustre everything else, this movie is extremely entertaining. I wasn't bored once while watching it. The movie gets you to genuinely root for the protagonist, admittedly by using cheap and lazy bad guy stereotypes instead of genuine character development, but it does its job. The cinematography is also at some points genuinely beautiful. I'm pretty sure half the movie's budget was used up only on the orgasmic food porn scenes that make up about half the movie. They're gorgeous to look at. This and the charming performance of the main actors make rescue this movie from being simply shit and catapult it into "terrible but I can't stop watching" territory. So basically, this is the McDonald's Combo Meal of movies. Read More Was this review helpful to you? Completed shawol0 people found this review helpful Story Acting/Cast Music Rewatch Value Yeah, it's a common plotline but I still enjoyed it a lot. Everyone's acting was good and of course, FOOD AESTHETICS along with good-looking people. Nothing intense and a good watch for days and times when you need something less intense to relax. And...though the storyline was not unique, I was taken aback by Yonghwa's role in the movie. I wasn't expecting much from the movie nor from him but I really liked him in the movie. His parts were dubbed so that awkwardness was there but still...I applaud him for his effort. He did justice to the character he portrayed. And in contrast to what I was expecting, his character development took a different turn so that was refreshing to watch as well. Read More Was this review helpful to you? Story Acting/Cast Music Rewatch Value This review may contain spoilers Watch the trailer in YT but forget about it & don't know the title, finally found it when searching for movie that I want to like the brotherhood between Sky Ko & Paul Ahn. From the trailer itself I can sense they never really fight with the grudge between each other. But only healthy competition between this movie have some loopholes that not quite make sense, maybe because this just movie so they have shorter duration to explained all- The betrayal of Mayo. Not enough explanation through the movie. Where's the ambition comes from, so And although I really like the end where Sky Ko just walk out the stage. But the end just like leaving some more question than The stupid owner of stellar restaurant. Just complete jerk & out of this is one good movie about healthy competition & brotherhood. Really hope this can make into drama, so we can get more elaborate about some of the things... Read More Was this review helpful to you? Completed Mariam Star0 people found this review helpful Story 10 Acting/Cast Music Rewatch Value 10 This review may contain spoilers Just like FOOD WARS! This movie gives me that excitement of the anime series food wars, mainly cause one of the main actor looks almost identical to Sōma yukihira in food fact that Tianci’s father disapproved of his cooking skills also made it fun to watch cause the thrill of how he was gonna prove him wrong kept lingering from the beginning of the movie. I also enjoyed this movie because of the attention to details of culinary skills that the two main chefs embodied. The intense look in their eyes due to the passion they have for cooking and their self-assured character that needs no acknowledgment was just FAB, I LOVE, I LOVE I LOVE!!!....definitely a MUST More Was this review helpful to you? Story Acting/Cast Music Rewatch Value I feel like- I've to eat it, like right now!!! রান্না করা একটা শিল্প। তবে কেউ কেউ এটাকে সাধনার পর্যায়ে নিয়ে যান। আর সাধক হওয়ার অন্যতম শর্ত হলো দুনিয়াবি সকল মায়া ত্যাগ করা। এই গল্প দুই শেফের। যাদের একজনের মুখের স্বাদ হারিয়ে গেছে, অর্থাৎ সে নিজে কোন কিছুর স্বাদ পায় না। তবুও সে নিখুঁত রেসিপি ফলো করে সেরাদের সেরা রাধুঁনী। আর অন্যজন ছোটবেলা থেকে বুকে বয়ে বেড়াচ্ছে দগদগে এক ক্ষত। এই ক্ষত নিয়েই সে প্রতিনিয়ত নিজেকে ছাড়িয়ে যেতে ব্যস্ত।এই গল্প এক পিতা-পুত্রের। পিতার স্বপ্ন সে রন্ধন শিপ্লের সাধক হবে। সাধক হবার জন্য সে বাকিসব জলাঞ্জলি দেয়, নিজের একমাত্র পুত্রকেও ছেড়ে যেতে দ্বিতীয়বার ভাবে না সে। ২০ বছর পর, সারা বিশ্বে সে এক নামে পরিচিত- The God of Cookery। তার সাধনা সফল হয়। অন্যদিকে পুত্রের জীবনের একমাত্র লক্ষ্য হচ্ছে পিতাকে ভুল প্রমাণিত করা। প্রমাণ করা যে সন্ন্যাসী না হয়েও সাধক হওয়া যায়। ভালোবাসার মানুষদের ছেড়ে গিয়ে নয়, তাদের সাথে নিয়েও God of Cookery হওয়া সম্ভব।এই গল্প বন্ধুত্বের এবং বিশ্বাস-ঘাতকতার। এই গল্প স্বার্থপরতার এবং স্বার্থহীনতার। এবং এই গল্প অবশ্যই অবশ্যই রান্নার!একটা ব্যক্তিগত মতামত দেই! ২০১৫ সালের দিকে লেখক নাজিম উদ্দিন ভাইয়ের রবীন্দ্রনাথ এখানে কখনো খেতে আসেনি’ পড়ে পেটের ভেতর মোচড় দিয়ে উঠেছিলো। এত সুন্দর করে রান্নার বর্ণনা দেয়া যে পড়ার সময় নাকে ঘ্রাণ পেতে শুরু করতাম, পেটে গুড়মুড় করত! এই মুভি দেখার সময়ও একই ফিল পেলাম! এত সুন্দর করে রান্নার সিনগুলো চিত্রায়ন করা! ইচ্ছে করবে স্ক্রিনের ভেতর ঢুকে একটু খেয়ে আসি!!! Read More Was this review helpful to you? TRAILER 151 Play all videos Cook Up a Storm videos Cook Up A Storm Trailer 1 TRAILER 151 Cook Up a Storm Photos Movie Info A culinary competition becomes a battleground as a famous Cantonese street-food chef goes up against his Michelin-starred, classically trained rival. Genre Drama Original Language Chinese Director Wai Man Yip Writer Manfred Wong, Jingling Li, Liu Yi Runtime 1h 38m Production Co Emperor Motion Pictures International Cast & Crew Critic Reviews for Cook Up a Storm Audience Reviews for Cook Up a Storm There are no featured reviews for Cook Up a Storm because the movie has not released yet . See Movies in Theaters Cook Up A Storm is a Lunar New Year comedy, inspired by Nicholas Tse’s own TV Show Chef Nic’. Released a little late into the season, it features a Chinese-Korean ensemble cast with familiar faces to both fans of Hong Kong film productions as well as K-Pop fans. But with a premise as cut-and-dried as it sounds, it’s probably more likely to appeal to fans of the aforementioned familiar faces. Chinese name 决战食神 Director Raymond Yip Screenplay Wen Jun Genre Comedy Running time 13600 Recommended for Fans of the cast members, those looking for mindless visual entertainment NOT recommended for Anyone on a diet, or expecting a cinematic masterpiece Starring Nicholas Tse as Sky Ko, Jung Yong-hwa as Paul Ahn, Tiffany Tang as Uni, Michelle Bai as Mayo, You Ge as Seven, Anthony Wong as Sky Ko’s father Plot outline Sky Ko Nicholas Tse, a Cantonese cook with a chip on his shoulder, meets his match in the form of Paul Ahn Jung Yong-hwa, a Korean-Chinese three-star Michelin chef. The former caters to local tastes at his popular time-honoured traditional shop, while Paul’s new Western-influenced restaurant aims to innovate. The problem is Paul’s restaurant, Stellar, opens right in front of Sky’s little shop. This takes away a chunk of Sky’s formerly thriving business. Naturally, Sky despises everything about Paul. That’s the least of Sky’s troubles. His dad, a world famous chef, left him when he was only a little boy, and claimed that Sky would never be a good cook just because he couldn’t cut some lousy vegetable. However, these rivals inevitably end up working together in an East meets West culinary fusion. Review Cook Up A Storm isn’t bad, but it isn’t good either. It’s definitely a visual treat, with its extreme close-ups of spices sizzling in the kitchen, and the chefs’ adept movements as they swiftly debone and toss a whole fillet around. But it really stops there. The film progresses and ends as predictably as expected. If and a big if you don’t expect too much from it, you might find yourself enjoying the show. Screenplay I would warn for spoilers but like I said, it’s not really that hard to foresee how this story ends. The screenplay had its moments, but the film didn’t really make me laugh out loud. I guess that in itself is kind of damning for a comedy. It made me smile in certain parts, for sure, but perhaps its only memorable comedic moment was when Paul punched his former boss, and the latter moaned about his destroyed nose job, likely a little gag at South Korea as the plastic surgery capital of the world. That did make me wish that they’d further explored Paul’s mixed Chinese and Korean background. I would wager that it might’ve made the film a little bit more interesting. Sky is perhaps an easier to love character, but Paul’s characterisation was a lost potential. I’m guessing it’s because the screenwriter wanted audiences to dislike Paul’s coldness just as much as Sky did. We do find out more about Paul towards the end of the film after his assistant backstabbed him, but by the time that happened, there was very little room for more character development left. Cinematography The campy slow motion was ridiculous enough to tease a few snorts out of me at first, but it was kind of overdone, even for a comedy. But I did enjoy the use of slow-motion for its gratuitous food porn shots. Here, I must emphasise on the importance of avoiding this film if you’re hungry or on a strict diet. Seriously. Cook Up A Storm gives Food Network shows a run for their money. If anything, the film is partly a rhapsody of food and I can dig that. Overall, the camerawork is probably one of the better parts of the film, even with its campy factor. I ended up feeling hungry by the end of the whole spectacle, but it was pretty worth it. Dramatic Delivery Most of the principal cast members are silver screen veterans. However, the film’s formulaic screenplay doesn’t really do any of them any favours. But I did appreciate the chemistry between most of the actors. The little frisson of energy between Nicholas Tse and Yonghwa was pretty fun to watch. Of course, it helps a lot that they’re both really good-looking, I’m not going to lie. What I didn’t like in the slightest was Sky’s friends’ attempts at slapstick comedy. More often than not, it was borderline painful to watch, cringeworthy, and terribly unfunny. They were unneeded. Final Thoughts Cook Up A Storm is pretty much as formulaic and predictable as it sounds, but I did enjoy it a little bit. I do like Nicholas Tse’s face a lot, so that would probably explain why. Would I watch it again? Yeah, I wouldn’t mind watching it again if any of my local TV channels aired it and I had time to spare. You’d probably enjoy it a little bit too if you’re into Food Network level of pornography, and appreciate the cast members’ faces. Nicholas Tse left and Jung Yong-hwa in Cook Up a Storm category IIA; Cantonese, Putonghua, Korean, English, directed by Raymond Yip Review Film review Cook Up a Storm – Nicholas Tse, Jung Yong-hwa face off in culinary comedy Director Raymond Yip dishes up a tested recipe that nourishes but with extra ingredients of Hong Kong’s property development and the city’s crumbling architectural heritage Published 556pm, 10 Feb, 2017 Updated 556pm, 10 Feb, 2017 Nicholas Tse left and Jung Yong-hwa in Cook Up a Storm category IIA; Cantonese, Putonghua, Korean, English, directed by Raymond Yip

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