THE KILLING OF A CHINESE COOKIE (2008) & food fest flicks

[Brian Thibodeau]

I'll likely delay a trip out of town next weekend to check out this kooky little documentary. It's playing (in conjunction with the city's Reel Asian Film Fest) on Friday, Aug. 20 as part of the "Fortune Cooking Festival", a pan-Asian foodie/entertainment fest being held at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre that weekend. Clever title, too.

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eboi6keicvg

Fest Pages:
http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldroutes2010/fortunecooking.cfm


The following night, they're screening another doc called CHINESE RESTAURANTS: BEYOND FRONTIERS, about Chinese restauranteurs plying their trade far from home, that looks even more interesting. Can't find a trailer, but here's the event listing:
http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldroutes/festivals.cfm?id=2271

Later that same night, they'll be showing KUNG-FU CHEFS (2009) with Sammo Hung, Louis Fan and Vanness Wu. I actually kinda like this picture—though it's not without flaws—so it's cool to see it playing to a larger crowd on the big screen here:
http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldroutes/festivals.cfm?id=2415
(trailer on this page features a bland English dub. Why do they keep doing these things in this day and age? )


Aug. 22's feature is AGRARIAN UTOPIA (2009) from Thailand:
http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldroutes/festivals.cfm?id=2413