Kung Fu Chefs
(aka Kung Fu Chef)
2009; directed by Patrick Yau

Sammo Hung continues his tour of the realm of the B-movie with Kung Fu Chefs, a low-budget production that throws action, comedy, and drama into the mix. Perhaps the film-makers should have concentrated more on just one or two elements, because the picture ends up feeling more than a bit overstuffed and underdeveloped. But if you're (pardon the pun) a big Sammo fan, this one might still be worth checking out.

In the movie, Sammo plays Wong, who is the leader of a village because he can wield the Dragon Head Blade. As he is preparing a wedding banquet, the food is poisoned, and he is banished from the village. At the same time, a young chef named Lung (Vanness Wu) graduates from culinary school, and heads out to find a master chef to apprentice under. The men end up meeting at a restaurant run by Shen (Cherrie Ying), and decide to work there. Wong and Lung's new dishes draw a lot of attention from both patrons and rival chefs, one of whom, Joe (Fan Siu-Wong) makes it his mission to shut them down. Eventually, the conflict comes down to a face-off at a televised cooking competition.

At this point in his career, one has to wonder exactly why Sammo continues to appear in these sorts of productions. Is he a workaholic? Is he not getting along with his wife? Did the cost of ramen noodles suddenly shoot up? If a person is into conspiracy theories, they could note that, perhaps not coincidentally, many of these zero-budget films Sammo as of late has been in also feature his son, Timmy. Whatever the reason, I would hope that Sammo starts taking more care in choosing his roles. The man who starred in classics like Pedicab Driver doesn't need to end his career on notes like this.

To its' credit, Kung Fu Chefs is certainly better than some of Sammo's recent clunkers like Osaka Wrestling Restaurant and Legend of the Dragon, offering up some decent -- but ultimately extremely bland and forgettable -- viewing material. There's some good action (but not nearly enough) and the whole "food as sport" subgenre is still interesting to watch, but at the end of the day, adding material like this to Sammo's filmography is ultimately not going to do him any good. This reviewer (and I would feel also most Sammo fans) would rather have him do fewer roles and have them be on the level on something like SPL, rather than constantly pumping out glaringly average efforts like this.

RATING: 5