by Annette Basile

Year:  2023

Director:  We Jun Cho

Rated:  PG

Release:  1 September 2024

Distributor: Bounty Films

Running time: 116 minutes

Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Keat Yoke Chen, Sam Chong, Eric Chen, Fabian Loo

Intro:
… a charming, superbly crafted, feel-good film

According to Buddhist folklore, we are meant to care for our relatives – even after they’ve departed. Forgotten souls, unfed by their living relatives, will wander aimlessly for all eternity. These are the hungry ghosts.

Despite the famished phantoms that roam these frames, Hungry Ghost Diner is not a horror. Instead, it’s a sentimental, slightly whimsical and gently humorous fantasy about family and food.

It centres on Bonnie (Fong Sher Maine), who we first meet as a child witnessing her mother’s death. Twenty years later, Bonnie (now played by Malaysian singer/actress Keat Yoke Chen) is in Kuala Lumpur, operating a food truck – called the Hungry Ghost Diner – and somewhat estranged from her father Bobby (Eric Chen).

After a mysterious visit from her uncle Ah Kiu (the late Sam Chong) – and being tempted to forget about the truck and sign up to be part of a swanky food court by slick salesman Kit (a very funny Fabian Loo) – she makes a snap decision to go back to her family’s rural cafe.

She arrives to find her uncle has died and her father abandoning the cafe. Frustrated with her father, Bonnie tries to get back to the city, but a snap Covid lockdown sees her return to the cafe. And this is where the real supernatural fun begins.

There have been a few films that centre on the Covid era – a time everyone would rather forget. But this is something different, and the lockdown is really just a plot device to ensure that Bonnie is stranded amongst the spirits.

The performances are beautifully natural, with Keat Yoke Chen perfect as the put-upon Bonnie. Much of the action takes place after dark, with first-time feature director director/co-writer We Jun Cho and cinematographer Teck Zee Tan creating a vibrant, strangely colourful and vivid night atmosphere.

With a narrative that contains a few unexpected moments – including a kind of Greek Chorus in the form of an exquisite puppet show – Hungry Ghost Diner works on many levels. Visually, it’s a feast. It’s a tad disjointed at times, and it may be a just a bit saccharine for some, yet most will find this to be a charming, superbly crafted, feel-good film.

Be sure to watch past the credits to the very last frame.

Hungry Ghost Diner is screening on 1 September at Chinatown Cinema, Midcity Centre, Level 1/200 Bourke St, Melbourne. More information here.

8.5Great
Score
8.5
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