The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman
Toronto International Film Festival poster for the film
Directed by	Wuershan
Produced by	Daniel Yu Tang Xiru
Written by	An Changhe
Screenplay by	Zhang Jiajia Tang Que Ma Luoshan Wuersh Tang Xiru
Starring	Kitty Zhang Masanobu Ando You Benchang Liu Xiaoye Ashton Xu
Cinematography	Michal Tywoniuk
Editing by	Huang Zhe
Release date(s)	September 16, 2010 (2010-09-16) (TIFF) March 17, 2011 (2011-03-17)[1]
Country	Hong Kong China United States
Language	Mandarin

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman (simplified Chinese: 刀见笑; traditional Chinese: 刀見笑; pinyin: Dāo Jiàn Xiào) is a 2010 action comedy film directed by Wuershan. The film is a connection of three inter-twining stories. The first about a butcher who takes revenge on a swordsmen for taking his wife, the second is about a chef who has his apprentice makes an eight-course meal for the powerful Eunuch Liu. The final story is about a warrior with a powerful sword melted from other champion swords, but the sword does not work as expected during combat.

The film was a feature debut of director Wuershan. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received a mixed critical reception.

Plot

The film is split into three stories titled "Desire", "Vengeance" and "Greed".

"Desire" is set in a remote area in Ancient China where a butcher named Chopper (Liu Xiaoye) is in love with Madam Mei (Kitty Zhang) and tries to buy her, but is beaten to her by the swordsman Big Beard (Senggerenqin) who gets her first. In retaliation, Chopper gets vengeance on Big Beard with his cleaver.^[2]

In "Vengeance", a Chef (Mi Dan) is told that the strong Eunuch Liu (Xie Ning) will pass through in a month's time and wants to eat the Chefs renowned eight-course meal. If there anything bad should happen in the meal, the chef will be killed, so he chooses his mute apprentice (Ando Masanobu)to be his successor and to take his place and passes his secret about his fresh fish. The chef is unaware of the real identity of his assistant.^[2]

In "Greed", the Swordsman Dugu Cheng (Ashton Xu) inherits a lump of iron that was made by Fat Tang (You Benchang) from the melted-down swords from previous champion warriors. After making the iron into a sword, Dugu faces problems when entering combat with it.^[2]

Production

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman is the first feature film from Daniel Yu's Beijing-based production company First Cut Features and the debut feature of director Wureshan.^[3][4] It was also Fox International's second Chinese production after Hot Summer Days (2010).^[2]

Release

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman premiered on September 16, 2010 at the Toronto Film Festival in the Midnight Madness section marking the first time a film from China has been shown at this sidebar.^[3][2] It was also screened at the Pusan Film Festival.^[5] The film was presented by Doug Liman at the festival.^[6] It was recently announced that it will be released theatrically on 17 March 2011 in Southeast Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand simultaneously.^[7]

Reception

After the premiere in Toronto, reception was generally mixed. Variety wrote that "even fanboys will be hard-pressed to engage with this quasi-martial-arts epic or even follow its ornate, overlapping plotlines. Of course, midnight screenings and some cultish enthusiasm are always possible."^[8] Eye Weekly gave the film two stars out of five, noting that "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman is really only memorable for its twitchy incoherence. Essentially a story within a story within a story, TBTCTS veers from terrible (the over-the-top Butcher vs whorehouse scenes, minus the surreal hip-hop sequence) to actually pretty decent (the second narrative frame involving what amounts to a revenge story, Iron Chef-style)"^[9] Film Business Asia gave the film a positive rating of seven out of ten praising the script and the cast.^[2]

References

1. ^ "《刀見笑》敲定春季檔上映 3月17日全球公映". http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/ent/film/sinacn/file/20110216/06352230648.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Elley, Derek (September 17, 2010). "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman (刀見笑)". Film Business Asia. http://www.filmbiz.asia/reviews/the-butcher-the-chef-and-the-swordsman. Retrieved September 21, 2010. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Toronto unleashes Butcher in madness". Film Business Asia. August 18, 2010. http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/toronto-unleashes-butcher-in-madness. Retrieved September 21, 2010. 
4. ^ "The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman". Toronto International Film Festival. http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2010/butcherthechefandthe#filmnote. Retrieved September 21, 2010. 
5. ^ "Fox to release Chinese martial arts film The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman". Asia Pacific Arts. February 23, 2011. http://asiapacificarts.usc.edu/article@apa?fox_to_release_chinese_martial_arts_film_the_butcher_the_chef_and_the_swordsman_16419.aspx. 
6. ^ Fleming, Mike (August 26, 2010). "Doug Liman Carries Torch For China Film". Deadline.com. http://www.deadline.com/2010/08/doug-liman-carries-torch-for-china-film/. Retrieved September 21, 2010. 
7. ^ "《刀見笑》敲定春季檔上映 3月17日全球公映". http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/ent/film/sinacn/file/20110216/06352230648.html. 
8. ^ Anderson, John (September 19, 2010). "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117943632.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&nid=2562&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+variety/headlines+(Variety+-+Latest+News). Retrieved September 21, 2010. 
9. ^ Bilton, Chris (September 14, 2010). "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman". Eye Weekly. http://www.eyeweekly.com/article/101798. Retrieved September 21, 2010. 

External links

• The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman at the Internet Movie Database