#dumplings (2004)

[texaschainsawmascara]

Dumplings

[n3kodorobo]

Dumplings (2004), dir. Fruit Chan

[halalgirlmeg]

Well that was fucked up, in an interesting way though

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

SUMMARY: Plagued by the thought that her shallow and unfaithful executive husband is leaving her because of her advancing age, former TV star Mrs. Li visits Mei, who now makes "miracle" dumplings for women looking to regain their youth. The key ingredient, however, might be more than Mrs. Li can handle.

[yokonos]

dumplings, 2004

[rye-views]

Dumplings (2004) dir. Fruit Chan. 餃子 (2004) dir. 陳果. 7.5/10

I would not recommend this movie to my friends. I would not rewatch this movie.

All I'm seeing is the shit we gotta do because of trash men. Mr. Li is just living his best trash life isn't he?

I know it's the point, but I abhor some of the sound design. Other times, it's good.

To have to get an abortion like this is so frightening. The world does not support women.

[psychosomaticdeicide]

Moral of the story: Don’t eat fetuses or you’ll get stinky and have a rash.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Zhiying Zeng’s eyes begin to sparkle and her gestures become more animated as she recounts the day her lifelong Olympic dream came true.

She had to wait longer than most athletes, too: At 58 years old, Zeng will be one of the oldest Olympians at Paris 2024.

But for Zeng, whose Olympic journey began in China in the 1970s and culminated in qualification for Chile’s table tennis team earlier this year, it was worth the wait.

She had even retired from professional table tennis aged 20 – something which allowed her the opportunity to uproot her life in Asia and move across the Pacific Ocean to Chile – and at one stage went almost 20 years without playing.

“It was the biggest dream of my life,” she tells CNN Sport with a thick, unmistakable Chilean lilt.

“Even when I was a little girl and they would ask me what my dream was, I would say: ‘Become an Olympian.’”

Chile has now been Zeng’s home for 35 years and she is as Chilean as they come.

She is known in her adopted country as ‘Tania’ – because Chileans struggle pronouncing the Z in her name – and her favorite dish is pantruca, a kind of dumpling soup.

She also eats beans, a staple of the Chilean diet, every week.

Zeng loves empanadas, too, but doesn’t indulge too much now that she’s an elite athlete again. “Too many calories,” she laughs.

From China to Chile

Zeng was born in Guangzhou in 1966 and picked up a paddle almost as soon as she was physically able.

Her mother was a table tennis coach, which meant the then-government housed the family next to a sports complex, allowing Zeng to train every day and surround herself with professional players.

She was trained by her mother until the age of nine when, Zeng says, she became a typical grumpy child that didn’t want to be coached by a parent.

So her mother enrolled her in a school that employed a table tennis coach and after nearly two years, aged 11, she entered an elite sports academy.

Even in China, by far the world’s most dominant table tennis nation, Zeng’s talents were evident from an early age.

She became a national junior champion and won several regional tournaments before turning professional at the age of 12.

When she was 16, she was called up to the Chinese table tennis team for the first time.

“So many players in China have that dream because it’s so hard to achieve,” she says.

However, in 1986, two years before table tennis made its Olympic debut at the Games in Seoul, the “two color rule” was introduced, meaning the two sides of the paddle now had to be different colors instead of both black.

Zeng explains that the two faces of the paddle produce different types of effects on the ball and she would regularly rotate it in her hand to confuse opponents.

The different colored faces meant opponents could better predict her shots.

“The change of rules affected my game a lot,” she recalls. “That’s when I had a big downturn and left the national team.”

It was a painful moment for Zeng, who says she idolized players who were not much older than her that had already become Asian or world champions, and she was desperate to follow in their footsteps.

But the rule change paved the way for the next chapter in Zeng’s remarkable story.

In 1989, she received an invitation to coach schoolchildren in Arica, a city in northernmost Chile.

It was a job she adored, but it wasn’t until 2003 that she picked up the paddle to play competitive table tennis again.

She wanted to introduce her son, who was 13 at the time, to the sport in order to drag him away from playing too many video games and watching too much television.

In 2004 and 2005, Zeng comfortably won two national tournaments but once again stopped playing when her son was old enough to go to training on his own and travel with the team’s coach.

Third time’s a charm

Zeng only picked up a paddle again when the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

“More than anything, just to exercise because we weren’t doing anything locked down in the house except eating!” she laughs.

“I got the bug and, once we were able to leave, I immediately wanted to play against someone to see what level I was at – and see if I could I still run or not.”

She contacted the federation in Iquique, where she lives today and owns a furniture business, and was soon playing – and winning – regional tournaments against mostly men given there were few female players.

“That gave me a lot of confidence,” she says.

“I had no problems with running, with fatigue or anything. I wanted to know how much more I could do.”

In 2022, the Chilean Table Tennis Federation sent an announcement to the regional associations that it was hosting a tournament to put together a team for the 2023 South American Table Tennis Championships.

Despite her success, Zeng was skeptical about going.

All of the best players in the country would be there and she doubted that she would be able to keep up.

In the end, she only went because a friend managed to convince her.

“‘Go and find out if you can compete or not. If not, at least you’ll be left with no doubts,’” she recalls her friend telling her. “I thought she had a point.”

Zeng qualified for the team, of course, and led Chile to first place in the team tournament, while also coming second in the singles and women’s doubles.

“I forgot what I was afraid of and what I was worried about,” she says.

But it wasn’t until the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago that her life really changed.

After her first appearance at the tournament, Zeng became a national icon overnight.

After losing the first two sets in her opening match, Zeng rattled off four straight to win 4-2 in front of her new adoring fans.

Chileans gave her the nickname ‘Tia Tania’ – Auntie Tania – and the AP reported that one young fan said he had gone just to watch the “table tennis grandma.”

Even Chilean President Gabriel Boric became a fan and congratulated her on a “tremendous” victory.

Zeng, who will play Lebanon’s Mariana Sahakian in the preliminary rounds of Paris 2024 on Saturday, says being in Santiago as an athlete during the Pan Am Games was a surreal experience.

She spent much of her time with other athletes, going out to dinner and taking photos.

“I lived like that when I was 15,” she says, recalling her time as a professional in China.

“It had been a long time since I experienced something like this. I was like an excited teenager again. I forgot I was 56!”

It proved to be a successful tournament on the table, too, as Zeng won team bronze for Chile alongside Daniela Ortega and Paulina Vega.

Zeng’s sons also noticed that her Instagram following had grown by almost 10,000 in a matter of days and had to teach her how to use social media, so she could keep her hordes of new fans updated.

Finally, 38 years after she gave up on her Olympic dream, Zeng qualified for Paris 2024 at a pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in Lima, Peru, in May this year.

Zeng says she didn’t sleep at all the night before the deciding game as she played out every imaginable scenario in her head.

On match point, when she went to collect the ball, her mind again began to run wild.

“Calm, calm,” Zeng, who says mental fortitude is her biggest asset in table tennis, repeated to herself. “You’ve got one more point.”

After winning match point, the emotion of everything she had experienced in the sport came flooding out.

Her father, who is 92 and regularly visits her in Chile, and her brother stayed up until 5 a.m. in China to watch the match, while her husband and friends were in Lima to celebrate the moment with her.

“My dad was able to see his daughter qualify for the Olympics,” she says, visibly emotional.

“He used to take me to training and to matches when I was a girl and now at 57, I made it. I made it.”

[cyancherub]

watching dumplings (2004) (loving it btw) and i am obsessed with the leading lady...

[texaschainsawmascara]

Dumplings (2004)

[tempural]

ur art is so stunning to look at i love you…. do u have any underrated movie/show recs?

Thank you very much 🥺❤️

Underrated recs... I actually don't know the rating status of a lot of movies n stuff I watch! Maybe some movie recs that I don't see many people talking about?

- First thing that came to mind was The Lure (2015), a Polish musical/horror movie about bisexual sister mermaids that has a lot of fun stuff about gendah, sexuality, and choosing your sister and cannibalism over stinky human boys. It's good yuri!

- A Hong Kong horror film, Dumplings (2004). It's about dumplings made from aborted fetuses, that reportedly provide youth. Themes of incest and rape. And cannibalism of course. Interests me personally cuz I grew up hearing old wives urban legends about them black market fetus/placenta foods, or other ways that Chinese babies get dumped/killed because of the One Child Policy 😘 very schlocky and horrific!

- Amores Perros (2000), a Mexican psychological drama that starts with dogfighting and goes through different stories of people of poor and rich social status affected by this domino effect. Also dogs are in each story. It's really sad. Lots of animal and human violence/abuse. I love the interwoven narrative that examines different perspectives in the same world. So much happens to other people that we don't know about... Also dogs.

I don't watch that many TV shows actually! Mostly kid's cartoons like Bluey or Yugioh while I'm doing chores? Oh you should watch the anime Baki! It's about punchsports. The story isn't important, just how it really captures the homoeroticism and fleshy body horror of punchsports like wrasslin' and boxing! You don't even have to care about punchsports, it's just so wonderfully over the top in how they draw bodies, and how they explain that Che Guevara pissing on assasins in jail helped him found a communist island nation away from the US's imperial control. Pickle is cute (and a cannibal!) and Yujiro is my waifu. Also sometimes US presidents appear so the author's OC can own them?? Baki really makes you think. A thinking man's anime. And the mangaka's daughter made Beastars. Family fulla funny folk!

Hope you enjoy these recs!

[halalgirlmeg]

She did what needed to be done!

[peliculameticula]

Dumplings, Fruit Chan, 2004

[romanceyourdemons]

Whats your favorite movie of all time?

this is a dastardly question. in terms of sheer rewatchability, i’d have to say hero (2002), but that’s only one metric. for the movie with the biggest impact on the way i watch movies i’d have to say either memento (2000) or yi yi (2000), for the movie that was the best sensory experience to watch, right now i’d say dumplings (2004) (short film) and the thing (1982), and for the movie with the argument i’m most interested in i’d go with the disappearance of my mother (2019), cannibal holocaust (1980), farewell my concubine (1993), and everything everywhere all at once (2022). again, this is just what my favorites are at the moment, and they’re fairly constantly subject to change

[thewarmestplacetohide]

<3 your blog! trying to watch more international films and i know there's some classics from Asia. do you have any recs for Asian horror

thank you!!

here are my favorite Asian horror films (note: a lot of these contain triggering content, so please do research beforehand if that's an issue):

Japan

ゴジラ/Godzilla (1954; creature feature, science fiction): US nuclear testing off the coast of Japan creates a giant lizard creature that rampages through Tokyo

藪の中の黒猫/Kuroneko (1968; ghosts): a woman and her daughter-in-law come back as vengeful spirits after they're murdered by samurai

ハウス/House (1977; horror comedy, ghosts): a group of schoolgirls visit a haunted mansion

天使のたまご/Angel's Egg (1985; dark fantasy, surrealist, animated): in a ruined world, a young girl cares for a giant egg

吸血鬼(バンパイア)ハンターD/Vampire Hunter D (1985; vampires, animated): when a woman is betrothed to a vampire, she hires a vampire hunter in an attempt to escape

アキラ/Akira (1988; science fiction, animated): 31 years after a nuke was dropped on Tokyo, a young man tries to save his friend from government experiments

鉄男/Testuo: The Iron Man (1989; techno horror, body horror): a man finds his flesh is cursed to turn to iron

パーフェクトブルー/Perfect Blue (1997; psychological horror, animated): a pop star is driven mad by a stalker

リング/Ring (1998; techno horror, ghosts): a videotape curses anyone who watches it to die in seven days

オーディション/Audition (1999; psychological thriller): a widower auditioning women to be his new wife makes a deadly choice

バトル・ロワイアル/Battle Royale (2000; science fiction, psychological thriller): a group of students are put on an island and told to slaughter each other

回路/Pulse (2001; techno horror, ghosts): a group of young people in Tokyo discover a website that claims to show you ghosts

殺し屋１/Ichi the Killer (2001; psychological thriller, slasher): a sadomasochistic Yakuza enforcer goes on a rampage

仄暗い水の底から/Dark Water (2002; ghosts): a divorced mother and her young daughter move into a haunted apartment building

ノロイ/Noroi: The Curse (2005; occult, found footage): a paranormal investigator tries to tie together a series of supernatural events

シン・ゴジラ/Shin Godzilla (2016; creature feature, science fiction): a giant lizard kaiju attacks Tokyo

カメラを止めるな!/One Cut of the Dead (2017; horror comedy, zombies): people making a cheap zombie flick find themselves in the middle of a real zombie outbreak

South Korea

올드보이/Oldboy (2003; psychological thriller): after being imprisoned in a room for fifteen years, a man hunts down the ones responsible

괴물/The Host (2006; creature feature, science fiction): a monster made when American chemicals were spilled into the Han River emerges to attack a community

박쥐/Thirst (2009; vampires): a Catholic priest is turned into a vampire by a blood transfusion

악마를 보았다/I Saw the Devil (2010; psychological thriller): a man goes on a brutal revenge mission after the murder of his wife

늑대소년/A Werewolf Boy (2012; werewolves, dark fantasy): a girl moves to a country home, where she befriends a strange, feral boy

부산행/Train to Busan (2016; zombies): a zombie plague breaks out on a train

서울역/Seoul Station (2016; zombies, animated): a zombie plague breaks out at a train station; companion film to Train to Busan

아가씨/The Handmaiden (2016; psychological thriller): a woman hired to be a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress plans to defraud her

곤지암/Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018; ghosts, found footage): a group of influencers livestream themselves exploring a supposedly haunted institution

#살아있다/#Alive (2020; zombies): a young man is trapped in his apartment during a zombie outbreak

Hong Kong

殭屍先生/Mr. Vampire (1985; horror comedy, vampires): a Taoist priest must fight jiangshi that descend upon a village

餃子/Dumplings (2004; psychological thriller): a woman obsessed with staying young eats dumplings stuffed with strange meat

維多利亞���號/Dream Home (2010; slasher): a woman goes on a killing spree to get her dream apartment

India

Bhoot/Ghost (2003; ghosts): a Mumbai businessman and his wife move into a haunted flat

Ek Thi Daayan/Once There was a Witch (2013; supernatural horror): a magician seeks protection from a witch who has haunted him since childhood

Tumbbad (2018; dark fantasy, occult): a father and son seek treasure in a castle inhabited by an evil god

Bulbbul (2020; dark fantasy): the village of a child bride, now grown, is attacked by a chudail

Indonesia

Pengabdi Setan/Satan's Slaves (2017; occult): a woman returns from the dead to haunt her children (this is a remake of a film from the 80s, which i have not yet seen)

Sebelum Iblis Menjemput/May the Devil Take You (2018; occult): a woman and her step-family visit her sick father's old home in search of what ails him

Iran

دختری در شب تنها به خانه می‌رود/A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014; vampires): a vampire targets a small Iranian town, attacking men who mistreat women (technically an American production)

زیر سایه/Under the Shadow (2016; occult): during the War of the Cities, a woman and her young daughter are haunted by djinns

Thailand

ชัตเตอร์ กดติดวิญญาณ/Shutter (2004; ghosts): a man begins capturing strange figures in his camera

Turkey

Baskin (2015; occult, dark fantasy, surrealist): a group of police officers discover a gateway to hell

Taiwan

哭悲/The Sadness (2021; bio horror): a virus spreads through Taipei, compelling all who are infected to commit the worst crimes they can imagine

[timelesstimesgoneby]

All Disney animals I can think of but I'm not including any Disney animated cannon or anything connect to that universe and same with Pixar because of cars universe please add anymore in the comments section

Ducktales 1987–1990

Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers

1988–1990

Mickey's Christmas Carol 1983 G 26m

A Goofy Movie 1995 G 1h 18m

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers 2004 G 1h 7m

Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh G 1977 1h 14m

Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search For Christopher Robin 1997 G 1h 16m

The Tigger Movie 2000 G 1h 17min

Piglet's Big Movie 2003 G 1h 29m

Winnie The Pooh: Springtime With Roo 2004 G 1h 5min

Pooh's Heffalump Movie 2005 1h 8m

Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie 2005 G 1h 7m

Winnie The Pooh 2011 G 1h 3min

Christopher Robin 2018 Pg 1h 43m

Dr Dolittle 1967 Nr 2h 32m

1. Ice Age 2002 Pg 81 Min

2. Robots 2005 Pg 91 Min

3 Ice Age: The Meltdown 2006 Pg 91 Min

4 Horton Hears A Who! 2008 G 86 Min

5 Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs 2009 Pg 94 Min

6 Rio 2011 G 96 Min

7 Ice Age: Continental Drift 2012 Pg 88 Min

8 Epic 2013 Pg 102 Min

9 Rio 2 2014 G 101 Min

10 The Peanuts Movie 2015 G 88 Min

11 Ice Age: Collision Course 2016 Pg 94 Min

Alvin And The Chipmunks 2007 Pg 1h 32m

Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb 2014 Pg 1h 38m

Snow Dogs 2002 Pg 1h 42m

White Fang 1991 Pg 1h 47min

White Fang 2: Myth Of The White Wolf 1994 Pg 1h 46min

The Call Of The Wild 2020 Pg 1h 40min

Iron Will (1994)

Eight Below 2006 Pg 2h

Secretariat (2010) Pg 2h 3m Go

We Bought A Zoo Pg 2011 2h 11m

1. The Crimson Wing: Mystery Of The Flamingos (G, 2008)

2. Oceans

2. African Cats

3. Chimpanzee (G, 2012, 1h 18m)

4. Bears (G, 2014, 1h 18m)

5. Monkey Kingdom (2015, 1h 21m)

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) G 2h 7m

Swiss Family Robinson 1960 G 2h 6min

The Absent Minded Professor 1961 Son Of Flubber

1962 1h 42m

Sammy, The Way-Out Seal 1962

The Incredible Journey 1963 G 1h 20min

A Tiger Walks G 1964 1h 31m

Moon Pilot 1962 1h 38m

Rocketman 1997 Pg 1h 35min

The Barefoot Executive 1971 G 1h 36m

Monkeys, Go Home! 1967 G 1h 41min

The Misadventures Of Merlin Jones 1964 G 1h 31 Min

The Monkey's Uncle 1965 1hr 31min

George Of The Jungle 1997 Pg 1h 32min

George Of The Jungle 2 2003 Pg 1h 27min

Charlie, The Lonesome Cougar 1967 G 1h 15min

The Adventures Of Bullwhip Griffin 1967 G 1h 48min

That Darn Cat! 1965 G 1h 56min

That Darn Cat 1997 Pg 1h 29min

The Million Dollar Duck 1971 G 1h 29min

Bedknobs And Broomsticks 1971 G 1h 35m

Snowball Express 1972 G 1h 39m

Superdad 1973 G 1h 36m

Charley And The Angel 1973 G 1h 33m

The Castaway Cowboy (1974) G

The Cat From Outer Space 1978 G 1h 44min

The Hunter And The Rockstar 1980 Nr 60 Min

Disney Classic 4 Movie Collection

Darby O'gill And The Little People 1959 1h 33m

The Gnome-Mobile 1967 1h 24m

The Happiest Millionaire 1967 2h 52m

The One And Only, Genuine, Original Family Band 1968 G 1h 50m

Kurt Russell 4 Movie Collection

The Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit 1968 G 1h 54m

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes 1969 G 1h 31m

Now You See Him, Now You Don't G 1h 28m

Strongest Man In The World G 1h 35m

Disney Don Knotts 4-Movie Collection

The Apple Dumpling Gang 1975 G 1h 40m

Gus 1976 G 1h 36m

Hot Lead And Cold Feet 1978 G 1h 30m

The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again 1979 G 1h 28m

Dogs 1

The Shaggy Dog 1959

The Ugly Dachshund 1966

The Shaggy D.A. 1976

The Shaggy Dog 2006

Dogs 2

Rascal 1969

The Journey Of Natty Gann 1985

Benji The Hunted 1987

Where The Red Fern Grows 2003