A lot of fun.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Despite not containing a single second of on-screen violence, DUMPLINGS is one of the sickest movies I've ever seen. I feel nauseous just thinking about it and ever watching it again is out of the question. Whether you view it as a modern-day parable of the age-old quest for eternal youth, as a gross-out comedy, a satire of anti-ageing products, or as a bleak horror film about cannibalism in China, you're guaranteed to have a reaction to what has to be one of the bravest films I can recall watching.It's a well-made movie. Fruit Chan is proficient at the technical aspects and he also elicits a couple of fine performances from his two leading ladies. Bai Ling dominates proceedings with her ultra-sensual turn as Aunt Mei, but the story really belongs to Miriam Yeung, whose quest for youth and jealousy of her husband's infidelity leads her to some very dark places. The film was originally conceived as part of a trilogy of short films under the THREE EXTREMES banner and later expanded to full length, and it does have the feel of a short – this is a mood piece rather than a focused narrative, and there's little in the way of action.Still – it's no secret that the story is about dumplings that contain human foetuses that help restore youth. The whole idea is completely disgusting and watching people eating said dumplings is utterly repulsive. There are graphic abortions here too, along with some horrible egg things that people enjoy eating, so I'd advise viewers to eat NOTHING before watching as you're liable to bring up your lunch with this one. DUMPLINGS is a disturbing little movie that's all too effective.

Being a fan of Asian horror movies, especially knowing that unlike the ones we have here in America they usually highlight symbolic meaning and draw horror from what lies underneath the story they've woven, I tend not to judge on the ostensible plot of these types of movies and focus more on their message.For this movie that was impossible. I understand perfectly the message that the movie is trying to convey about the dangers of abortions and the extent of immorality that people will be driven to by vanity. However, even when I got past that I really couldn't consider this movie's plot anything more than lacking, at best, and more or less absent at worst.The plot is supposed to be exactly what you can read in most descriptions: a woman, trying to regain her youth and cheating husband, consults a witch doctor and begins eating miracle dumplings with a horrifying special ingredient. And, on the most basic level, that was what it was about. But beyond that it was a mess.Sometimes the issues seemed like they were close to being resolved, but then the movie either introduced something completely different or just ignored the possible resolution and moved on to something completely different. Such as the ending. Right after a dramatic shift in circumstances that leaves the viewer with very powerful conflicting emotions, the movie completely ignores that new issue and instead choose to settle for old characters with new issues and an ending that really didn't resolve anything.What really saved this movie for me was the amazing acting and cinematography. Sometimes the actors played their parts so well that even without the subtitles you could kind of tell what they were saying based on context alone. At no point was a line directed in a way that failed to have, what I assume, was its intended effect.The cinematography was also amazing and very artsy. There were some off-center or out of focus shots, normally irritating but here very wonderful. The lighting, the props, the camera angles--it was all gorgeous! That alone made me keep watching through the more grueling, slow suspense-building parts.Long story short: if you like good acting and amazing polish, this moving is a must see. If you're more interested in plot, then you should probably opt out.

Dumplings deals with some serious issues. You have Bai Ling. Bai Ling plays Mei a famous cook known for her home made rejuvenation dumplings. There is a secret ingredient in these dumplings. You are not told this woman was a former gynecologist and person who used to perform abortions. You won't know much about Mei exactly until a little later in the movie.You have a former TV Star Mrs. Li who visits Mei because she think those dumplings can help recover her youth and become attractive again to her husband. At what costs is it worth looking young? There also ends up being problems with husband such as having sex with other woman than his wife.Some of the content in this movie is stuff you may morally object to. This movie deals with a lot of different moral issues tied to love, beauty and abortion. Just having something like abortion in a movie would probably turn away any American from wanting to watch a movie like this. They ended up taking a short story and made into a 90 minute movie. It does end up being a little bit slow at times. This is an interesting movie. This is worth seeing at least once.

People rate these things when they either love the film or hate it. Personally, I just thought it was a bit bland and a bit dull.I didn't find the cinema photography particularly impressive, no shots made me sit back and think wow!. Personally, it was just competent.It's not particularly gruesome in it's depiction, the concepts of what is happening are horrific, but not particularly graphic.There where not many surprises in the film, and the friends i watched it with found it predictable, certainly spotting most of the main themes.Would I watch it again? this is my personally mark of whether a film is worthwhile, and I would not watch it again. For me there is neither enough action, entertainment or social commentary to make this film worth watching again.Should you watch it? I can't really recommend that you do, there's just not enough in there to make it a particularly worthwhile experience. The only recommendation I can give, is that it's an interesting experience seeing what film makers produce outside of the Hollywood studio system.