Film Programmes Office to launch screening programme "Food for Thought - A Cinematic Feast" (with photos)
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Selected films are presented in a "menu" comprising of "Starter", "Main Course", "Dessert" and "Today's Special". "Kamome Diner" (2006) and "The Lunchbox" (2013) are two of the films in "Starter". Both are light-hearted pieces telling stories of how delectable food brings strangers closer to each other. The other two films are "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967) and "Toast" (2010). The former is seasoned with humour while shedding light on racial relations through the story of a white girl bringing her African boyfriend to a dinner with her parents, while the latter is adapted from renowned British chef Nigel Slater's childhood memories.
In "Main Course", one of the films, "Babette's Feast" (1987), is about the protagonist preparing a French feast for two sisters, who shelter the protagonist after her escape from Paris to Denmark, transforming goodness and grace into food. In "Big Night" (1996), two Italian immigrant brothers go to every length to save the business that they have built in the US. With Meryl Streep's masterful portrayal of renowned chef Julia Child, "Julie & Julia" (2009) is adapted from the true stories of two women. The story connects the two lives in two eras with a cookbook and illustrates the sense of fulfilment through cooking. Blending documentary with re-enactment, "Cooking History" (2009) traces the stories of cooks and soldiers and joins together six periods in military history with recipes. "First Cow" (2019) brings us back to the American West in the early 19th century to tell the story of two men's dreams of culinary entrepreneurship.
Four films are highlighted in "Dessert". "Tampopo" (1985) tells the story of a widow apprenticing under a truck driver with mastery in cooking to keep the doors of her late husband's ramen shop open. The richly layered subplots of the story are copiously seasoned with dark humour, satirising society's foibles. Leaning on the side of the absurd, "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989) is about the neglected wife of a restaurant owner having an affair with a patron in the restaurant with the help of the chef, folding love and lust into food. In the festive comedy "The Chinese Feast" (1995), Leslie Cheung plays the role of an apprentice cook at a restaurant, which is challenged to a culinary duel by a rival chef that will determine the fate of the restaurant. Ingredients running low, staff arriving late, and the hygiene being deemed substandard in an inspection are all happening in a restaurant in "Boiling Point" (2021) on the busiest night before Christmas. This single-take film, featuring the actors' precise performances, captures the suffocating tension both inside and outside the kitchen.
"Today's Special" is "Master Cheng" (2019), a film about a professional chef Cheng, played by Chu Pak-hong, encountering a café owner Sirkka in a remote village in Finland. While Cheng brings gastronomic delights to the local people, he also finds peace with his troubled past in the scenic Finnish landscape and kindles a cross-cultural romance with Sirkka. This screening is one of the programmes of the EKCC Opening Season.
Tickets for screenings at the HKFA and EKCC priced at $75 are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For telephone bookings, please call 3166 1288. For screenings at K11 Art House, tickets priced at $110 are now available at K11 Art House and the website of MCL Cinemas (www.mclcinema.com). For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2734 2900 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/fp/en/listing.html?id=83.
Some screenings will be accompanied by post-screening talks, hosted by Dr Fiona Law, Dr Wong Kim-fan, Dr Stephanie Ng, Joyce Yang, Wong Siu-pong, Dr Derek Lam, Horace Chan and Cecilia Wong.
Two seminars, titled "From Set to Restaurant: Film Arts and Culinary Arts" and "The Twins in One Body: Art Direction and Food Styling", will be held. The former will be hosted by Irving Cheung and Leung Tsz-yin, the production designer and art director of "Table for Six" respectively, while the latter will be hosted by Man Lim-chung, the art director and costume designer of "The Chinese Feast", and Cheung Siu-hong, the production designer and image designer of "Fagara". The post-screening talks and seminars will be conducted in Cantonese. Ticket holders of respective screenings before the post-screening talks and seminars will be admitted with priority. Seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis with free admission.
The FPO will also organise an enrichment programme "Bon Cinéppétit!", inviting audiences to share their thoughts after screenings. Some of the selected sharing will be displayed at EKCC from January 10 to 18, 2026. Contributors will have a chance to receive free tickets to a screening event titled "Grand Finale", to be held at the EKCC on January 18, 2026. Details will be available on the FPO website (www.lcsd.gov.hk/fp) on November 21, 2025.
Ends/Thursday, November 6, 2025
Issued at HKT 16:00
Issued at HKT 16:00
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