Tasty Cinema: Join us for a Festival feast – on and off screen!

Tasty Cinema is filled with culinary surprises and Asian cuisines secrets.

Food does not just satisfy our basic life needs. It is also an important part of our social life. Meals bring together families and strangers, provide a platform for exchanging traditions, customs, and memories. They can open people’s hearts, tempt, and provoke interpersonal connections.

The Tasty Cinema section is a story of life-changing recipes, emotions brought out by cooking together, and of intercultural dialog forged over a full plate. It is also an insight into Asian cuisines – from seasonal Korean delicacies to eclectic Singapore tidbits, from Japanese school lunch boxes prepared by mothers to fancy compositions of the Vietnamese master chefs.

If your mouth has ever watered when you watched protagonists enjoying refined delicacies or just simple home-made meals, then the online version of Five Flavours has something just for you. Together with the best restaurants specializing in Asian cuisines, we prepared a special festival menu. The unique sets, inspired by particular films from the section, will be available to order in advance on our website. Every day during the festival, they will be delivered across Warsaw, allowing you to combine home screenings with the unique taste of dishes from the films. For viewers from outside the capital, we will prepare a special snack box – their original flavors will enrich the festival experiences. More details and a list of partner restaurants will be revealed on November 6!

That’s not all – for those who like cooking challenges, KUKBUK magazine prepared a set special recipes allowing you to recreate the on-screen dishes in your own kitchen. The recipes will be published during the festival on KUKBUK’s Instagram and in the Festival newspaper which will appear at the Five Flavours website together with the program.

Bento Harassment

Kyō mo iyagarase bentō, dir. Rempei Tsukamoto, Japan 2019

For Kaori, who is always smiling, and always juggling a few job at a time, her teenage daughter’s grumbling is just another way to trigger her explosive creativity in… preparing bentos, school lunch boxes. The precisely composed food turns into an outlet of emotional communication – not only between family members. The candy-sweet absurdist comedy drama easily switches between playfulness and serious tones, creating a warm portrayal of the challenges of single parenthood, the emotional turmoil of adolescence and the reality of living in a small Japanese town.

Kamome Diner

Kamome shokudō, dir. Naoko Ogigami, Japan 2006

Though silent Japanese women and introvert Finnish men seem to have a lot in common, opening a Japanese restaurant in Helsinki is a big challenge. The spirited protagonists will go to great lengths to break the wall of distrust. Naoko Ogigami, one of the most original Japanese directors, famous for her absurd sense of humor and unique aesthetic, created a charming story in which the taste of rice balls meets the warm aroma of cinnamon rolls.

Little Forest

Liteul Poleseuteut, dir. Yim Soon-rye, South Korea 2018

Hye-won returns from Seoul to a small town where she grew up. In the familiar surroundings, she discovers memories full of flavors and aromas. She tries to recreate the food of her childhood, and restore her life balance. This adaptation of a Japanese manga is a love letter to real food, filled with the taste of sun-kissed fruit and the tenderness of the hard-working hands that prepared it.

Foodlore: He Serves Fish, She Eats Flower

dir. Phan Dang Di, Vietnam 2019

A young, ambitious cook, working in one of the restaurants filling the small streets of Ho Chi Minh with delicious aromas, is seeking the approval of a very special patron – the beautiful Van. The Vietnamese episode of HBO’s eight-part culinary series is a beautifully filmed, sensual tale of the indissoluble bond between food and passion, in which looking for a union of taste becomes a metaphor for building relationships.

Foodlore: The Caterer

dir. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thailand 2019

An American in Thailand is a ready-made recipe for an anecdotal story of cultural misunderstandings. A surly actor playing in a Thai horror movie is not handling the heat very well, and glances suspiciously at the meals served to the crew, using ingredients he never suspected were edible. Can the heavenly compositions of flavors and aromas win him over? Pen-ek Ratanaruang, the master of subversive genre cinema, plays with an “expat oversees” convention in a nod to Sophia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” and a reference to his own film, “Folklore: POB,” screened at the 12th Five Flavours.

The Tale of Samurai Cooking

Bushi no kondate, dir. Yuzo Asahara, Japan 2013

A young servant surprises everyone with her culinary prowess – perhaps her passion can inspire a young samurai who refuses to continue the traditions of his family? In showing a story with more knives than katanas, Yūzō Asahara proves that samurai cinema can still be fresh and surprising. The film is an homage to washōku – the traditional Japanese cuisine, included on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2013.

Bittersweet

Nigakute amai, dir. Shogo Kusano, Japan 2016

The energetic Maki is spending her days in front of a computer, thoughtlessly devouring instant food. She flinches at the sight of vegetables, especially – the horror! – organic ones. Her life takes a 180 degree turn when she meets Nagisa – a handsome gay guy, who loves to cook and is a… vegetarian. In this unconventional romantic comedy, two protagonist with radically different characters create a dangerous mix, which only delicious plant-based meals, prepared with love, can save from a full-blown explosion.

Not My Mother's Baking

dir. Remi M Sali, Singapore 2020

Sarah is living in the shadow of her mother – a culinary celebrity, who is spending all her time at TV studios and culinary schools. The young woman wants to show the world her own ideas for mouth-watering cakes. She will get help from the gallant Imran and the cheeky Edwin, who also has a bone to pick with his parents, forcing him to work at their roasted pork stall. This unpretentious family tale of overcoming prejudice, intercultural meetings, and looking for your own path in life, has a lot of culinary and cultural undertones. The mother and daughter are played by real stars of Singapore culinary scene. The Five Flavours screenings will be the film’s international premiere.