Times are tough. What is left to desire when we are feeling drained? No matter – life is a journey with all the flavours to meet our palates. Life is a feast, and how it tastes is how we experience the full spectrum of desires – mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs. Let’s escape to our delicious desires!
The Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC)’s signature programmes Opening House and Late Night Series – Art X, with the theme “Craving for…” to kick off 2023, present a full-day journey with diverse arts and culture on 25 March, 2023 (Saturday). Three food-related films will infuse your day with surprises and imagination: Heavy Craving – awarded at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, The Zen Diary – latest film starring Sawada Kenji and Matsu Takako, and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover – a sight and sound feast with Peter Greenaway, Michael Nyman and Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Tickets are available at www.popticket.hk now. Please visit the Hong Kong Arts Centre website HERE for further details.
25/3 (Sat) 7:00pm
Heavy Craving
Awards: FIPRESCI Prize, Golden Horse Film Festival 2019 – Best New Talent, Taipei Film Festival 2019 – Best Performance, Vancouver International Women in Film Festival 2020
Director: Pei-Ju Hsieh
Cast: Jia-Yin Tsa, Yao-Jen Chang, Shu-Chin Ko Samantha, Tsu-wu Hsieh, En Wei Chang, Lene Lai
Taiwan | 2019 | 90’ | In Putonghua with English subtitles | Colour
Thirty years old and 105 kilograms of weight, lunch lady Ying-Juan was dealt a bad hand. She works at her mother’s childcare centre and has a harder time fitting in than a T-Rex in a petting zoo. On her birthday, Ying-Juan’s mother signs her up for a weight loss programme. To earn her mom’s approval, Ying-Juan reluctantly joins the class.
But things change when Ying-Juan meets Wu, a deliveryman who bears a checkered past underneath his radiant smile. Encouraged by Wu, Ying-Juan becomes more determined to lose weight. Meanwhile, Ying-Juan discovers Xiao-Yu, a straight-A student at the childcare centre, is a secret cross-dresser, and a special bond begins to form between them. Just when things are getting on the right track, Ying-Juan’s passion for cooking and life seem to be fading away due to her over-aggressive diet. Bitterly, Ying-Juan finds herself standing on the brink of a meltdown, both physically and psychologically…
25/3 (Sat) 9:00pm
The Zen Diary
Festivals: San Sebastián International Film Festival 2022 – Hawaii International Film Festival 2022
Director: Yûji Nakae
Cast: Kenji Sawada, Takako Matsu
Japan | 2023 | 111’ | In Japanese with English subtitles | Colour
Writer Tsutomu lives alone at a mountain cabin in Nagano. He collects fruits and mushrooms from the mountain. He also raises vegetables in a field. Every day, he cooks his meals with these natural ingredients. Doing that, he can feel the flow of the seasons and he writes his book. Sometimes, his editor/girlfriend Machiko visits him. They cook with seasonal ingredients and eat together. They have a good time together. Tsutomu seems to be enjoying an easygoing life, but he is still unable to bury his dead wife’s ashes in a grave. His wife died 13 years ago.
25/3 (Sat) 11:55pm
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Awards: Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Actor, Sitges Film Festival 1989 – Best International Film, Independent Spirit Award 1990 – Best Foreign Film, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 1991
Director: Peter Greenaway
Cast: Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard
UK & France | 1989 | 124’ | In English without subtitles | Colour
The insatiable gourmet, the contemplative and lonely historian, the wife’s desire for pleasure, are endlessly liberated in the dreamland of Le Hollandais gourmet restaurant. The luxurious decoration and colourful lighting present an arena stage. Flickering lights and changing colours, releasing a shocking torrent of lust, appetite, murder and revenge… Let’s “eat” to enter the world of beasts, and behind the gorgeous and grotesque scenes, enjoy the sight of our civilised world of creation, consumption and craving. Michael Nyman‘s score prominently incorporated his 1985 composition Memorial, together with the costumes designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier and the cuisine props prepared by Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli – the film satisfies cravings of all senses
