Today's Article
A Second Serving of Dumplings
Media / 5/12/2008 5:49:09 PM
Back again with horrors on film is our deceptively mild-mannered guest writer Michael Penkas. (Ohhh, I've heard some of his twisted fictional tales!) In the short wake of Mother's Day he brings you a unique Asian dish, best served on an empty stomach...
Most of the time, we are not informed of atrocities so much as
reminded of them. We already know how animals are slaughtered for
meat, how foreign labor is abused to provide us with cheap products,
how oil is linked to terrorist organizations, how pharmaceuticals
are tested on animals. We normally reconcile it all under the sad
label of "necessary evil". If we were, each of us, offered an elixir
of eternal youth, how much thought would we give to the strangers
who had to suffer to produce it?
"Dumplings" tells the story of Mrs. Li, an aging actress who fears
her husband will soon leave her for a younger woman. She meets Mei,
a working-class woman who runs a dumpling shop out of her apartment.
Mei's dumplings are reputed to restore youth to those who eat them
and thus fetch a high price. What makes this story so disturbing
isn't the revelation of what's in the dumplings (you can probably
figure it out before you even see the film); but rather how it is
not mentioned outright, simply understood. The violent scenes in the
film not only shock; but also add to the subtler theme of the piece,
illustrating how casually Mei (and eventually Mrs. Li) observe it
all. The finale is appropriately understated, shocking us by what
has been done without explicitly showing us. The final scene is made
chilling by a quiet sound rather than a bloody image.
"Dumplings" originally appeared
as the first short feature in an anthology film titled, "Three ...
Extremes" (see
past
Killer-Article). A longer, full-length feature version was later made and
can be found in the two-disc set of "Three ... Extremes".
Personally, I would recommend the shorter, original version. The
longer version is padded out with additional scenes of dumpling
preparation, back-story into the life of Mei and Mrs. Li's husband's
affair. All of this additional scenery seems to take away from the
true horror of the piece...how a decent woman can slowly become
indifferent to evil. Worst of all, the extended version replaces the
original ending with one that manages to be both gorier and less
brutal.
Enjoy “Dumplings†as a short subject on how we each reconcile with
evil.
Michael Penkas
Jill's p.s. Inspired to write or film your own short story? Send us your words for our Flash Fiction section and your celluloid to our Killer-short Film section of Killer-works. We're waiting for you...