31 Days of Horror: Day 3 "Dumplings"

Keeping with my theme of horror and pregnancy and babies, we have this gem from Hong Kong. Originally part of a set of three short horror films, Dumplings was expanded into a feature film in 2004 and premiered at the Berlin Film Fest. At first you might dismiss the film and another over-the-top freaky Asian gross-out pic but it's themes of ever-lasting youth lust, woman-on-woman cruelty, and government controlled family planning bring depth and make a lasting impression.

Yes, the premise is disturbing and disgusting. I don't think I'm revealing too much to tell you that the secret ingredient in these magical, youth-preserving dumplings is fetuses and that some fetuses (the older, developed ones) are more effective than others. But in this film, we can't just dismiss the cook as an evil witch going out in the night to steal unborn babies directly from their mothers' wombs, we find out that she stocks her kitchen with the discarded babies from China's "one-child policy." In her heart, Aunt Mei (the cook) is an opportunist. Where other's see tragedy, she sees surplus and unaddressed demand. She's intelligent and charming, a former doctor, far more complex than your average horror villain.

The connection of cannibalism and prolonged youth is nothing new, we've seen in it countless movies  and ancient cultures but rarely are fetuses or babies consumed. Also, the Asian culture's obsession with youth has also been well established. Putting the two together is a natural fit. More compelling to me was seeing how this film reflects women and their attitudes toward one another. Women seem to have a more sinister foe than Satan or serial killers or the men who try to suppress them: other women. This film unflinchingly shows the callus, but real relationships between women who are unable to see how much they have in common because they feel they are in competition with each other for men's (or a man's) approval. To me, the female characters' treatment of one another is far more disturbing than the suggestive crunch of a fetus dumpling.