Movie Review: Hunger
One-liner: impassioned performances, elegant visuals and provocative social commentary compel this thoughtful drama thriller.
Hunger is a Thai film set in Bangkok, directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri, starring Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying as a street cook and Nopachai Chaiyanam as an infamous chef. The fierce drama thriller explores the integration of a young chef into the toxic kitchen of a celebrity chef with dictatorial tendencies, reminiscent of The Menu, Whiplash and Parasite.
The Menu centred on an exclusive restaurant, a dark comedy hostage drama that functioned like an unhinged Monty Python sketch against the backdrop of a hellbent chef. While employing a similar intensity and setting with some equally grisly moments, Hunger is more of a journey film as the young conscript discovers the limits of personal ambition in this cautionary tale.
Similar to Whiplash, there’s a relentless and obsessive undercurrent in this apprentice–master clash as things heat up. Parasite comes through in the film’s commentary on class structures, offering a thought-provoking and provocative tale as a poor family’s daughter attempts to make it as a world-class chef, provoked to go beyond all reasonable expectations only to make a startling realisation.
“Gimme food, gimmme fire… that’s what I desire.”
While Hunger is fairly conventional in the way the trial by fire finds a student out of her depth and under the thumb of a cruel taskmaster, struggling to hold onto her dreams, what makes it more substantial is its hard-fought lessons and social commentary. Delivering some beautifully crafted and artful dishes, foodies will also find this to be a delicious, albeit dangerous sensory overload as a chef flirts with the edge by way of daring experiments. Hunger has an authentic feel, aided by an array of solid performances to reinforce its co-stars with Chaiyanam embracing a stoic Chef Paul with impossibly high standards and Chuengcharoensukying finding slow-burning resilience in Aoy.
As elegant as its food preparation is, there’s rarely a dull moment as the colourful visuals move seamlessly from one curious scene to the next. The characters could have used more depth for a fuller expression and more meaning, but fulfil their roles by way of impassioned performances, carried forth by the main rivalry. While Hunger’s messaging is a little muddled as the story weaves its way to a thoughtful conclusion, it’s never short of conviction and flair when it comes to pure entertainment value. Leaning on weighty themes surrounding ambition, class, greed and power, there’s more than enough to sate audiences looking to enjoy intense and suspenseful drama in this deconstruction of food as a social structure.
The bottom line: Fierce
