'm a sucker for a deeply romantic story. Not the sort of shallow, hollow excuse for romanticism found in a romance novel,
but the kind of deep, looking for a soulmate romanticism in movies like The Princess Bride. All this is to say that Kitchen is
such a film, and therefore I found it deeply moving, despite its flaws.

Louis is a hairdresser who lives with his mother, Emma (played by male actor Law Kar-Ying). When one of his clients dies,
her granddaughter Aggie moves in with them. When she first moves in, she doesn't speak, overwhelmed with grief.
Eventually, she comes out of her shell and becomes a part of their family. At the same time, a romance begins to develop
between her and Louis. She is hesitant to get involved, because she perceives him as somewhat of a playboy, and she has
suffered enough already.

Kitchen is a magical film. The script holds a deeply romantic view of life, and this is reflected in other aspects of the film as
well. The set design is quite beautiful, particularly the house in which Louis, Aggie, and Emma live. Often different scenes
seem to have a color which defines it, dominating the visual field. The direction is fairly simple, though Yim Ho uses some
lovely directorial and editorial tricks in a wonderful dream sequence.

Jordan Chan is, unsurprisingly, excellent. While he is often called upon to be little more than a weird funny guy, in Kitchen
he brings a lot of depth beneath the surface weirdness. Law Kar-Ying is surprisingly un-campy as a Emma. I generally think
of him as the strange older guy in a Stephen Chow comedy, but he is truly convincing as Louis' mother, and the fact that he
is a man is not distracting. I'm not sure how I feel about Yasuko Tomita's performance. She seems to be exaggerating her
expressions, often looking like a child. On the other hand, this does make for an interesting character. It is difficuly to tell if
she was doing this intentionally or not. I suspect that this will grow on me in repeated veiwings. Sadly, Karen Mok has only
a small role in the film (I'm still waiting for the day when she gets a role sizeable enough for her talent).

Kitchen sometimes seems to be trying a bit too hard to be quirky, though it avoids going overboard and becoming a
collection of strange mannerisms and character traits. One of my favorite quirks is Aggie's fixation on smells and her
enjoyment of the kitchen (thus the title). I would have liked to see this more developed, as there is not hint of why she feels
this way, but it was interesting without feeling pointless. There are also several repeated symbols used throughout the film,
including knives and the moon. Fortunately, Yim Ho goes to the trouble to bring some meaning to these symbols, rather
than throwing them in merely for sake of being arty.

I can't finish the review without mentioning the music. There is only one piece of music in the entire film, repeated with
numerous variations. Fortunately, it is a good piece of music and fits the mood of the film perfectly.

I am a sucker for this type of film. Sure, it is sentimental and sappy, but it well done sentiment and sap. If you like this sort
of thing, then Kitchen is a fine example of how these things can be done well.