1996 - THE GOD OF COOKERY - a funny Stephen Chow film.

Stephen Chow should have been a bigger deal in the West.  Already a big star in Asia he never really received the recognition that Jackie Chan was finally able to achieve.  Chow made a bunch of popular and highly profitable films in Hong Kong.  The God of Cookery was one of Chow's biggest hits.

In this film Chow spoofs celebrity chefs and those celebrity chef cooking shows.  Chow plays a character named "Stephen Chow."  After humiliating just about everyone who he perceives to be standing in his way.  He gets his comeuppance by losing his show and all of his sponsorships.  This leads to Chow ending up in an area of Hong Kong where they cook and sell street food. There he befriends a facially scarred woman played by the performer Karen Mok who makes something called "pissing beef balls" It's a dumpling that ultimately squirts fluid all over your face as you eat it.  Chow knows a potentially popular food when he sees it so he sets out to market it with a line of canned pissing beef ball delicacies.

 

The humor is an incredible mix of martial arts, Chinese word play (which I suspect will go over the heads of most Western viewers) and lots of jokes about a Shaolin Monastery where he is trained to be a humble master chef.

 

Chow mixes so many comedic styles and genres that at times it's jarring to see him go from pathos to outright goofy "Jerry Lewis" comedy.  The actor Karen Mok is a good sport wearing disfiguring facial makeup and the climatic cook off even drags in some heavenly intervention in the form of some Asian gods.  Overall mighty funny stuff. 

The film was written by  Stephen Chow Edmond Lo and Tsang Kan-cheong, the running time is 92 minutes.