Dumplings (film)

Mrs Li, a former actress, is losing her good looks and longs for passion with her wealthy husband, who is revealed to be having a love affair with his younger and more attractive masseuse. To boost her image, she seeks the help of Aunt Mei, a local chef. Mei cooks her some special dumplings, which she claims to be effective for rejuvenation. After Mrs Li sees a fetus being used as an ingredient in her next meal, she is initially disgusted and runs away, but later comes back. Mei tells her that the secret ingredient for her rejuvenating dumplings is unborn fetuses imported from an abortion clinic in Shenzhen, where she used to work. Mrs Li asks her to keep finding more potent remedies, until one day she is in luck: Mei performs a black market abortion on Kate, a girl who had been impregnated by her father, and cooks the fetus into dumplings. This has a wondrous effect on Mrs Li's libido, as she has sex with her husband, who has recently injured his leg.

Kate and her mother are seen going home after the abortion. Kate collapses on the pavement, bleeding from her uterus, and dies, presumably from a ruptured uterus. Mrs Li hosts a dinner party, and her friends wonder about her newfound beauty and youth. However, they claim a horrid, fish-like smell is in the air, which turns out to be from Mrs Li herself. She excuses herself and furiously calls Mei, demanding to know what she has ingested. Mei claims that a child conceived by incest is the most potent. Mr Li overhears the conversation, and pays Mei a visit to find out if her special dumplings really work. He eats one of them and has violent sex with Mei. After seeing an old poster of her, he is shocked to learn that she is actually in her 60s, but has managed to preserve her physical appearance as a woman in her early 30s. Although she attributes her looks to her cannibalism, the revelation does not stop Mr Li from continuing to have sex with her.

Mrs Li realises that she cannot stay young without eating Mei's dumplings. Ignorant of her husband's affair with Mei, she pleads with her to continue to find her the most potent ingredients, and promises to pay her handsomely. Presumably a mistress of Mr Li at this point, Mei ignores Mrs Li and tears her cheque. The next morning, police officers arrive at an apartment, where they find Kate's mother, crying, bloodied, and clenching a knife. Upset about her daughter's death, she has stabbed her incestuous husband to death. The police apparently then find out Mei's identity, and raid her apartment. Mei, however, has already fled. Meanwhile, Mr Li has impregnated his masseuse. When Mrs Li finds out, she tracks down the masseuse and offers to pay her if she aborts the fetus. The masseuse reluctantly accepts. Mrs Li insists to the doctor that the fetus should come out alive. She then takes it, makes dumplings out of it, and ingests her husband's unborn child. Mei ends up selling dumplings on the streets in Shenzhen.

Whereas the extended version retains much of the plot from the short film in Three... Extremes, the endings differ. The short film focuses solely on Mrs Li's quest for rejuvenated youth and does not include the masseuse or the subplot involving Mr Li and Mei's affair. Consequently, in place of the masseuse's pregnancy, Mrs Li finds that she herself is two-months pregnant with a child she was told she would never have. After learning she can no longer get dumplings from Mei, she decides to abort her own child and make it into dumplings for her to eat. The final scene is of Mrs Li, close-up to the camera and slowly eating a dumpling, most probably with meat of her own fetus.

• Miriam Yeung as Mrs Li
• Tony Leung Ka-fai as Mr Li
• Bai Ling as Aunt Mei
• Pauline Lau as Masseuse
• Miki Yeung as Kate
• Wong So-foon as Kate's mother

Filming locations include Shek Kip Mei Estate, before redevelopment, and Lai Tak Tsuen.[3]

Bai Ling won the award of Best Supporting Actress at the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005.

• Dumplings at IMDb
• Dumplings at AllMovie