The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.5

The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel Blu-ray Movie Review

Not much love, but just about everything else, in the time of cholera.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 27, 2014

Biological warfare may not seem like the best subject matter around which to craft a slapstick comedy, but that’s more or less exactly what The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel attempts to do, and against considerable odds, actually succeeds in doing. (It should be noted that the addition of the “and” between the second two characters is evidently a nod to Western grammatical traditions—the film’s original Chinese title evidently just listed all three characters with no separation between them.) This is a film which continually defies expectations and in fact regularly trots out some cinematic sleights of hand to keep the viewer off kilter. From a decidedly playful visual aesthetic that offers a glut of devices (including brief bouts of animation and lots of bells and whistles like black and white segments) to a plot that almost defies easy description, The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel also plays with time periods, ostensibly featuring a World War II time frame that nonetheless is jettisoned in the early going for a Wild West ambience that may remind some fans of Asian cinema of another knockabout and chaotic film which played with its supposedly relatively “contemporary” (in this case 1920s) setting, Let The Bullets Fly. The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel is highly stylized, to the point that the first 20 minutes or so seem like a bizarre mash up of traditional Chinese opera (“the actor” is actually an opera singer in the film) and a Three Stooges short. But once the admittedly labyrinthine plot pieces fall more or less into place, the film takes off on a breakneck pace that includes elements of farce, political conspiracy (while taking place during World War II, the actual focus is on the Sino-Japanese conflict), and, yes, germ warfare. No one is exactly whom they seem to be, and the plot ricochets like a magic bullet at times, zinging to and fro with nary a straight line in sight. The film is loud, noisy and perhaps a bit too busy for its own good, but it’s often a rollicking good time that manages to deliver more than one surprise along the way.

It would be manifestly unfair to reveal too much about The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel’s incredibly complex plot, for this is one film that actually does manage to offer up a twist or two that most viewers will probably not see coming. The basic set up, while on a basic level rather simple to understand, is delivered with such an amazing glut of theatricality and just outright weirdness, that it may seem harder to understand than it really is. This disconnect is evident from virtually the first frame of the film, when we see what appears to be a traditional Western bandit, replete with a scarf covering his face, attempting to stop (and rob) a horse drawn carriage. With some Ennio Morricone-esque music wafting through the speakers, one might be forgiven for thinking they had wandered into some far eastern version of a Sergio Leone “spaghetti western” (a “dim sum western”, perhaps?). A manic sequence unfolds where things aren’t actually abundantly clear, but ultimately the two people who had been on the stage appear to have been captured and tied up in a local restaurant.

The “bandit” turns out to be our Scoundrel (Huang Bo), and once the film segues inside the restaurant, we soon meet The Chef (Liu Ye) and The Actor (Zhang Hanyu), both of whom work at the establishment. Also on hand is The Chef’s peculiar wife (Liang Jing), a woman who tends to grunt and squeal more than actually speak. These three new characters are understandably upset that their place of employment has suddenly become the location of a nascent hostage drama, but things get considerably more complex when the quartet discovers that the two captives are actually Japanese scientists carrying what appears to be a strain of cholera. The film has already quickly provided information that in the early 1940s Beijing was overrun with a cholera epidemic which killed untold hordes of people, and for a moment it seems like The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel might be a strangely comic take on the typically anti-Japanese genre that informs a certain corner of Chinese cinema.

That, and frankly just about everything else, turns out not to be what it initially seems, and after a completely lunatic opening act, the film segues back several hours to deliver what is simply the first of several reveals which alerts the audience that the outright theatricality in the opening moments of the film was not merely a stylistic choice but an indicator that some play acting was actually going on. Without spoiling any of the fun which ensues, the film actually turns out to be something of a “caper” movie, with the titular trio (and the wife) involved in a rather intricate plot to extract information from the Japanese scientists. But even this element has a few surprises of its own, which co-writer and director Guan Hu doles out with an amazing degree of intelligence and verve.

The best thing about The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel is that it often seems to be almost completely random at times, but it actually reveals itself to be a very smartly plotted escapade where even small elements turn out to have more significance than might initially be thought. The film is a whirlwind of activity, so much so that it can become a bit hard to follow at times, but it’s so relentlessly goofy and bizarre that those who are willing to just let go and follow the film’s admittedly winding course will most likely end up having a rollicking good time. The film benefits from some beautiful production design (despite the fact that the bulk of the film takes place within the restaurant). Performances tend to be hyperbolic—intentionally so, it should be added—but if one can get past the overtly fake feeling opening scenes, the characters actually do begin to settle down and make more sense.

There is some lip (or at least text) service briefly given which attempts to link events portrayed in The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel to actual historical events, and there’s no arguing that there actually was a Japanese germ warfare operation known as Unit 731, something that’s exploited within the film. The main characters here are supposedly based upon real life people, though the film’s somewhat cartoonish ambience may tend to undercut any feeling of verisimilitude. However, that ultimately doesn’t detract in the slightest from The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel’s hugely enjoyable presentation. This is pure “popcorn entertainment”, a film designed to deliver laughs and a few gasps of astonishment, all unfolding like an almost psychedelic three ring circus.

The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Shot digitally utilizing the Red Epic, this is an often fantastically sharp and colorful looking high definition presentation. Image stability is top rate, and fine detail is unusually crisp and clear (take a look at the tiny weave on the placemat in screenshot 19 for a great example). As mentioned above in the main body of the review, the film utilizes a bunch of color grading and other bells and whistles to up the visual ante. This is just the latest in a kind of strange string of releases I've reviewed which focuses quite strongly on yellow, bathing many sequences in a kind of jaundiced hue which does slightly rob the image of some fine detail. The brief animated moments have a somewhat softer look than the bulk of the film.

The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is in both Mandarin and Japanese, though truth be told the dialogue is often so frenetic in an already noisy film that it almost becomes like another sound effect. Speaking of sound effects, the film is awash in patently goofy sound effects (listen to the absurd pounding when the canister of cholera bounces down a flight of stairs). Surround activity is very consistent here and often very enjoyable. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is extremely wide in this damage free track.

The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (1080p; 11:19) consists of separate featurettes devoted to the main characters and the actors and actresses who portray them.


• Blooper Reel (720p; 1:36) is window- and pillar-boxed.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:42)

The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel requires a couple of deep breaths at the very beginning as you adjust to the film's relentless, in your face ambience, but after you've become acclimated to the breathless pace, mix of sight gags and character bits and a really unusual "MacGuffin" around which to build a plot, everything falls into place and the rest becomes a wild ride with a number of unexpected twists and turns. Visually inventive and wildly energetic, The Chef, the Actor and the Scoundrel is an unexpected delight in many ways. Highly recommended.