The+God+Of+Cooking

Film Title: God of Cooking Plot: Stephen Chow is an arrogant chef that’s been named by the city “God of Cooking.” Because of his fame, he establishes various restaurants under his name, knowing that people would come. He does various businesses in the highest buildings of Hong Kong, teaming up with Uncle. During one of his meetings, he meets a chubby man called Bull Tong, and takes him under his wing. One day he was overthrown by Bull, with Bull revealing all of Chow’s lies to the world, causing him to fall from his throne. Bull takes over everything Chow has, and Chow sinks into poverty. Sometime later, Chow meets the street food chef Turkey, along with her gang. Inventing the famous “Pissing Beef Balls”, Chow sets out to take back his throne. Through the process, he realizes that his past days as “God of Cooking” was completely shallow, and that cooking with his heart is the true potential for the name. Theme: The theme of this movie would be - It takes full potential to live up the name others give you. Tone: The tone of the film is comedic. Stephen Chow (director himself) likes to use comedic elements to display sad stories.

Non-Diegetic: > > > >
 * 1) The music in the credits scene - this music itself doesn’t exist in the world of the characters, however, the music is there to make the atmosphere of the audience keep up with the beat for the cooking.
 * 2) Even though this scene is a repeat of the first scene for the movie, this is a non-diegetic cut. The fortune lady says the exact same thing kneeling to Chow earlier on in the movie through the exact same shot. Only this time, it’s a different man. Other than showing that the lady is saying the same thing to different people, it’s a non-diegetic cut as well.
 * 1) The sounds of the fire during the fried rice is exaggerated at a certain level just to dramatize the comedic effect of the movie.
 * 2) When Bull takes over everything that Chow had, there were montages of various magazines shown, as if it’s showing the process of Bull’s taking over. This was more of a creative un-diegetic way than showing subtitles instead.
 * 1) The light used in the part where Turkey dresses up for Chow and Chow runs away is also used to exaggerate a comedic effect of an ugly woman trying to be seductive. The light does not exist in the character’s world.
 * 1) The subtitles (“One Month Later 一个月后”) put near the ending of the film is a non-diegetic way to transitioning the time of the character’s world to another time.

Diegetic:
 * 1) The host of the Culinary Cooking Show talks in the microphone throughout the whole competition, even when he’s off the screen we can still hear him in the back. This is a diegetic sound cause the characters in the world are responding to it and hearing it.
 * 2) The camera noises during the scene where Chow was arrested were also diegetic.
 * 3) People chattering in the market where Chow was eating the noodles at Turkey’s stand were also a part of the scene.
 * 4) During the Cooking Competition in the second last scene of the movie, the fight between Bull and Chow in cooking the “Buddha Jumping Wall”, the sounds that they made with the pan is also diegetic.

10 Mise En Scene > > > > > > > > > > . >
 * 1) The costume of the fortune teller is light blue with yellow dragons on it. This not only gives a bright color sense of her character, but at the same time the print corresponds to her words to Chow in the beginning: “You’re like a fairy....” It corresponds to the theme because Chow himself is the God of Cooking, and his hierarchy with that name was like the king. Since the theme was it “takes full potential to live up the name that you deserve”, the shirt was able to foreshadow the later “real potential” that Chow has as a chef in order to win back his name. 
 * 1) The color for the market also sets the tone of the movie: which is comedic, but at the same time it shows the theme of the story as well. All the colors in the market were all extremely bright. This creates a kind of “comic-like” world for characters like Turkey and Chow. At the same time, because Chow was the God of Cooking, he spent most of his life in boring grey industrial buildings, and the color for the market serves as a theme that there sometimes the joy of the world can be in the most normal place. The colorful aspects of the set was also used to show that Chow was able to learn his full potential as the God of Cooking later on in the movie.
 * 1) The lighting of the Culinary Competition serves as an important Mise En Scene for the movie. The Culinary Competition is usually held on a giant cruise that’s shaped like an ancient palace. Whenever a scene takes place inside the palace, everything around the people in the scene is in warm and gold colors, expressing as if they’re like real “Gods”. The “light” that was made to make the characters glow shows that these characters have the skills, and that they are the “special ones”. This was use to build up to the theme by showing the audience what the people with real “potential” in the story.
 * 1) The top of the building set for Bull is the same as the top of the building set for Chow. Earlier when Chow had his power, he had the power to his staff and his property (including the top of the building aka the rooftop). When Bull came back into power, it was made sure that Bull had the same power as Chow had before by putting the exact same set on the rooftop, and some similar shots as well. Before this scene Bull showed that he had potential to get the name of “God of Cooking”, and he was able to use his name to create an empire of his own like Chow did. Before Chow lost everything he had to Bull, the rooftop was a symbol where he was living his life on the top based on his name. This relates to the theme because the rooftop symbolizes where the chefs with “potential” would work on.
 * 1) During Chow’s restaurant opening, he had a flashback of his crush when they were in their high school years. The whole flashback had a dreamy effect, and the colors were extremely pure and contrasted as well. This not only gives a fresh effect on the audience, but also display the purity of Chow’s flashback. At the same time, the colors also gives off a comedic tone, which helps build up the theme.
 * 1) When Chow was beaten up by Turkey’s gang, he was thrown near the trash. The lighting of this scene does play a significance to the theme. This was the point where Chow is at the lowest state out of the whole movie, so broke that he has nowhere to go. Chow’s face was practically dark, but he still had little light that surrounds his outlines. This meant that he still has a chance to get his throne back for God of Cooking. This relates to the theme because Chow actually had potential for the name, except he abused it and didn’t do any good with it. 
 * 1) During Chow’s strike back with his “Pissing Beef Balls”, he looked at the poster that was hanging beside him on a wall. It was the poster of Fat Bull. The poster plays a significant role in this not as just a decoration, but also a symbol of Chow’s inspiration to strike back. It was the trigger to Chow in realizing that he needs to show that he’s the real God of Cooking. At the same time, the smiling face that Bull makes in the poster not only shows his expression in the poster, but also show a comedic effect for the audience.
 * 1) The two words “掂” (awesome) and “死” (death) were the words that Bull mapped out when they showed the progress of Chow’s success in “Pissing Beef Balls”. These two words not only symbolize the real “death”, it also foreshadows Bull’s “death” in his name at the end of the movie. At the same time, the other word 掂 foreshadows Chow’s later real potential as a chef after he went to the monk school.
 * 1) Turkey’s Noodle Cart was later revealed to be a cart full of Chow’s face on it. The cart itself was originally used as a “set” for the beginning scenes, but we saw in this scene that it showed the affection (how much affection) that Turkey had for Chow.
 * 1) The green screen of the judge rolling in the meat after eating Chow’s rice in the Culinary Competition was used to show the judge’s open-eyed experience in eating Cha Shao Rice (the dish that Chow made). The purpose of the green screen was to exaggerate and create a comical effect on the audience, indirectly showing that Chow had proven himself to be the official true God of Cooking