The concept here is an homage to Japanese TV shows like The Chef and Iron Chef, with dashes of The Chinese Feast, God of Gamblers, and King of Beggars tossed in for seasoning. Stephen Chow is HK's top master chef, who's willing to condemn the most delicious dish on the basis of the cook being ugly; he's also a conceited snob whose chain restaurants are making customers sick. It's a frame-up, of course, initiated by his porcine protege, Bull Tong (Vincent Kok), who eventually ascends to Chow's former position. Chow is taken in by the bucktoothed proprietor of a street stand (Karen Joy Morris), whose "Pissing Beef Balls" are as elastic as superballs, and can heal the sick. Now Chow must prepare for next year's cooking competition and unseat his rival; and he does this by entering a Buddhist monastery, where the abbot sucks out his accumulated bodily poisons through his penis. He also gets beaten regularly by the 18 Brassmen of the monastery every time he tries to escape, leaving a smear of blood on the pavement every time they drag him back in. The final face-off occurs in HK's Jumbo Floating Restaurant, where Tong pits his sumptuous Buddha Jumping Wall stew against Chow's nirvanic Sorrowful Rice -- but the competition is fixed. To fix the fix, there's a deus ex machina ending that's just perfect, as three Bodisattvas descend from heaven and undertake divine justice amidst some cool special effects.

(2/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]