There Is a Secret in My Soup

Lazy, unfocused, inept film-making from director Yeung Chi Gin. Supposedly based on a true story, it sabotages any opportunity it may have had with patented cluelessness.

It's arguable that it never had a screenplay. Everything that happens is so random and linear. Chiu Chiu Chan (Maggie) steals money and a lighter from a girlfriend's husband (a gangster) to pay for her mother's operation. When the husband finds out, he begins to subject her to non-stop abuse. The abuse, ultimately, leads to her demise.

The flashback structure (ala DR. LAMB, UNTOLD STORY, etc.) provides a sloppy hook to hang a narrative on. Told from the perspective of several miscreants who participated in Maggie's demise, it provides for a choppy, uneven experience.

What truly capsizes THERE IS A SECRET IN MY SOUP is amateurishness. There is no atmosphere, style or intelligence at work here. The film is a simple exercise in cynical commerce.

The abuse scenes look more like charades than reality and the performances are wildly uneven. Two scenes, in which Miss Chin dances "seductively" for one of the criminals, are totally out of context and ludicrous. What were the producers of this mess thinking? Boring crap.