Dumplings

Aroview: Grotesque feature length version of Fruit Chan’s submission to the THREE…EXTREMES Asian horror omnibus, this time expanding the deplorable fable of an aging actress who turns to special ‘dumplings’ made from aborted baby fetuses as a black magic cure for her ailing youth.

Deliciously perverse in its tongue-in-cheek commentary on Chinese cuisine, beauty obsession, and more potently, the country's pervading 'one child' policy (hence the abundant source of dumping filling), Bai Ling's wicked turn as an abortionist trading in black market fetuses benefits most from this extended release. While too much to stomach for some, this is not without a taboo-busting sense of humour. Providing the film's sickly back alley hues, Christopher Doyle's eerie cinematography is also in strictly good taste.

NZ International Film Festival 2005