Canceled: Final Recipe

A message for our patrons:

The university has recommended that we suspend events drawing more than 100 people. With this in mind, and considering the health and well-being of our entire community, the UCLA Film & Television Archive is canceling upcoming events at the Billy Wilder Theater. Learn more

Eat Your Baon  (2019)

Rediscovery of Filipinx American identity through Filipinx American cuisine.

Digital, color, 5 min. Director: Vanessa Codilla, Jenny Tan.

Phoenix Bakery  (2020)

Celebrate Phoenix Bakery’s 80th anniversary with the family behind this Chinese American bakery institution in the ever-evolving Chinatown, Los Angeles.

Digital, color, 15 min. Director: Janet Chen.

Final Recipe  (2013)

UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Professor Gina Kim’s culinary-centered, transnational family melodrama, Final Recipe brings into relief what we all know to be true already—how our hunger for comfort food and home are often invariably linked and food competition shows will never fail in getting our taste buds salivating. So, why not stage a family reunion in the midst of the making of one thereby upping the stakes? 

Such a premise gives us contemporary Asian cinema’s grande dame, Michelle Yeoh (who is also an executive producer) as Julia, the glamorous host of a popular Shanghai-based cooking competition show where determined upstart Singaporean high school student, Mark (Chinese-Canadian K-pop singer Henry Lau) comes to discover his cultural roots and his true calling. As Yeoh’s on-screen husband, master chef, Mark’s would-be mentor and incumbent, Singaporean-born Chin Han’s David imbues swagger into his role as the potential future self of his challenger. 

After premiering at the San Sebastián Film Festival, it helped to jumpstart what is now the trendy food and family film coming out of Asia and its diasporas. In the realm of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) festival-centered circulation, it was selected to open the Hawaii International Film Festival and close the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications. We are excited to revisit his delicious cinematic dish.

DCP, color, 97 min. Director: Gina Kim. Screenwriter: George Huang, Gina Kim. Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Henry Lau, Chin Han.