Xie Yu Zheng

This film captures quite well the conflict of a stubborn old generation and the new wave of gastronomic preferences. It portrays the view of how this outdated generation seems to appreciate the changes that catered to changing local tastes back when dishes like 'laksa' came to Singapore, but are quick to dismiss the new contemporary modifications to food culture in Singapore. Pretentious as they may be, what these brand new changes to the food scene in Singapore are actually catering to the tastes of our young locals. Anyway, the prior generations may say they are objective to tastes, but I can attest to how poorly many of them react to exotic flavours, and how they yearn forever to return to a series of unending repetition of the old flavours they are so used to. The movie is not perfect, hence the rating. As much as I appreciate the idea that is being portrayed here, the overall display of the relationship of dissent between the two generations in the movie is far too obvious and lacks development. What has led this man of great objectivity and supposed appreciation of anything intrinsically and objectively good and deserving of praise, cultivate such a sense of dissatisfaction for this new era of food, instead of being even marginally more accepting? Some scenes are awkward, either because of the accent that seems to be achieved through brute force, bad acting, or script that hasn't gone through thorough trying. At times it seems as though the production team/director is trying to mimic scenes from a persuasive independent western documentarian production, and goes too hard to achieve it, leading to this lingering feeling of unease. Unnatural progressions, human behaviour, interaction, are rife throughout the movie. As the movie progresses, it seems as though the director is trying to steer to audience away from being in touch with the main actor. I do not get how that is supposed to work in favour of getting across the message I suppose the production intends, as the movie continuously criticises the 'younger generation' and how their ways are wrong. On a diverging note, the extreme juxtaposition of the correct English subtitles and the English tongue of the majority of our locals in the food industry shows exactly how linguistically incompetent they are. I am aware of different environmental conditions that people grow up with that lead to this, and I do not think there is nothing inherently morally wrong with this, but it does make the content a little hard to consume without feeling a sense of mild distaste. But at the end of the day, this production is less about the tastes of foods and local flavours than it is about the people who make it, which I really have less of an interest in. They care less about the food itself than the stores of the people who make them. Maybe if you approach the movie this way you will get a more fruitful takeaway. It's a repetitive structure, with not much meaning and delving into the gist of what food critiquing is about. In closing, don't expect any sort of clear, conclusion to this movie, if any at all.