ferrarma kelliah darylah
Domenec Reynolds
As an avid Netflix enthusiast who often harks back (knowingly) to the screen on buses and trains, I will be sharing how the newly launched Netflix film Hunger (2023) has created room for me to mindfully tease out Dhamma and chill in a meaningful manner.
Although she is now at the apex of her career, she does not feel a sense of complete satisfaction. What was she really striving so hard for? What are the trade-offs she has to make from this insatiable appetite?
The first dimension of hunger which the film portrays deals with physical hunger. As depicted in the film, many homeless and malnourished were lying along pedestrian walkways, curling into a ball as they quietly withstand their hunger pangs.
Although these scenes in Hunger (2023) may seem very trivial, hunger is a very real problem faced by many on a day-to-day basis. Living in a developed country, we may simply gloss over physical hunger and take for granted the food we consume every meal.
This first level of hunger ties in beautifully with the Sukha Vagga which mentions how hunger (as in the physical kind) is the worst kind of disease which needs to be addressed before realising Nibbana.
Without a specific catalogue of principles and rules to tell us what is considered right or wrong, we can only rely on our trustworthy companions (hiri and ottappa) to navigate this VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world we live in.
As she moves through the ranks, she discovers that while Chef Paul is indeed a brilliant chef, he is motivated by the hunger of those who cannot be satisfied more than by a passion for cooking. She must decide what it means to be special and what she is willing to sacrifice in order to achieve that.
I absolutely adored this film. There have been a lot of movies this year that have been fun and that I have enjoyed, but this one is a movie I will be thinking about well past the two hours that I watched it. The shots of the food, both being prepared and being served are stunning, and overall, I felt like the whole film had a really high production value.
The performances are all fantastic. I always suggest watching foreign language films with subtitles so that you can experience the full impact of the performances that the actors give, and that is no different this time. The passion of Aoy contrasted with the coldness of Chef Paul was brilliant and I loved how the actors played off of one another. No dub can capture that entirely.
The need to feel special is something that most people have, though it is likely meant to be satisfied by a small number of people - close friends and family. But social media has made it that some now need the approval not merely of those who know us intimately, but of every person ever. For some people, especially those with extreme wealth, the desire to be special is met not necessarily with fame, but rather with access to things that are exclusive. How these two desires play off of one another is the subject of Sitisirir Mongkolsiri\u2019s film \u201CHunger,\u201D currently streaming on Netflix.
Aoy (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) is a young woman working at her family\u2019s noodle stand. She and her family struggle to make ends meet, and they all dream of being something more than this simple shop. One day, Tone (Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya), the sous chef at Hunger, a world renowned restaurant stops by and offers Aoy an opportunity to come cook for Chef Paul (Nopachai Chaiyanam). She accepts the invitation and after being put through her paces by Chef Paul, she earns the honor of being a part of his team.
The story is so much more thorough than anything I\u2019ve seen in a while, and while the movie is long at nearly two and a half hours, the pacing was such that I never felt like it was dragging. My only quibble with the movie was the end that felt a little bit out of step with the overall tone of the film, but truly, I enjoyed the rest enough that I wasn\u2019t completely put off by the end.
As the gap between the extremely wealthy and the poor continues to grow, and as people are turning more and more to social media to find their self worth rather than to those closest to them, this movie feels like it is at the right time. \u2018What are you hungry for,\u2019 is a question worth asking, and this movie asks it brilliantly.
Anyone who's worked in a professional kitchen will tell you that it's a hellish time. Blood boils and emotions run high in the heated environment, and while there's an absurd amount of tension throughout the long shifts, some will say that the satisfaction of pulling everything together, in the end, is always worth it. We've seen the culinary world turned on its head in recent years through the success of FX's The Bear and the acclaimed film The Menu, painting fine dining as something to be paid for in blood, sweat, and tears. Netflix's upcoming Thai drama, Hunger, aims to do something similar.
One of Netflix's first Thai releases of the year, Hunger will be the next project from director Sitisiri Mongkolsiri. The Thai director's previous projects include a handful of episodes for Netflix's Girl From Nowhere, and the mythological film Sang Krasue that was originally released in 2019. With his firm roots in horror and drama, we can expect Hunger to embody both in a story that bears a resemblance to Damien Chazelle's Whiplash.
"Aoy, a woman in her twenties, runs her family's local stir-fried noodles restaurant in the old quarter of Bangkok. One day, she receives an invitation to leave the family business and join team 'Hunger,' Thailand's number one luxury Chef's table team led by the famously ingenious, and infamously nasty, Chef Paul."
It's a story we've heard time and time again, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Perfection in the kitchen is something that demands an ungodly amount of attention and focus. Those who are familiar with the ever-popular celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay will likely remember that he was the star of a documentary series entitled Boiling Point, wherein Ramsay opened his first restaurant and earned three Michelin Stars. Compared to the intentionally-angry persona Ramsay puts on nowadays, there was a genuine ferocity behind his curse-laden tirades in Boiling Point. There's no glitzy production or self-awareness of his own angry self. Instead, there's only passion and enough stress to put down a small elephant.
Unfortunately, this kind of environment is all too common in such a performance-driven industry. We've seen a variety of shows and films recreate this to great success. A 2021 film also titled Boiling Point chronicled the kitchen environment using a single continuous shot, giving the audience an insight into the utter chaos that goes on behind the scenes. The Bear focuses more on the practical issues involved with running a kitchen, and how the business side of the industry only compounds the anxiety behind the stoves and ovens. Even The Menu, despite focusing more on its horror elements, even noted how the clientele of fine-dining establishments exacerbate the issues mentioned previously.
What'll be interesting to see in Hunger specifically, however, is the focus on the film's protagonist Aoy. Seeing as how Mongkolsiri has ties to a variety of horror titles, it'll be interesting to see how the psychological stress of balancing commitments to both Aoy's family restaurant and to the infamous chef Paul will play out visually.
We already get a brief glimpse of what might be a nightmarish sequence part-way through the film's trailer. Aoy is left standing among a mess of scattered pans, smothered ashes, and lit fires in the middle of an abandoned kitchen. There's an unsettling combination of rhythmic drumming alongside repetitive prepping of various ingredients, all the while she's told to go faster and faster. While we won't necessarily see anything extreme, like cannibalism, there'll definitely be a tense environment for the audience to hang onto.
The lead role of Aoy will be played by Chutimon "Aokbab" Chuengcharoensukying, a Thai actor whose most prominent roles include 2017's Bad Genius and 2022's Faces of Anne. Her performance in the former netted her more than a dozen separate awards from a variety of institutions, including Best Newcomer from the Asian Film Awards and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Film) from the Thailand-based Maya Awards. While Bad Genius focused on SAT exams and widespread cheating, Aokbab delivered a downright jaw-dropping performance despite the film being her acting debut. Given that Bad Genius focuses on similar themes of success and the "hunger" for it, we can expect a similarly stellar performance from her.
Playing the opposing role of Paul is Nopachai "Peter" Jayanama, who some may recognize from the 2011 action film Headshot. Peter has also been involved with the Netflix miniseries Hurts Like Hell, 2018's Homestay, and 2009's Nymph. The lattermost film was showcased at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
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