Film Journal 2024: The Taste of Things

Film Journal 2024: The Taste of Things
Director Tran Ahn Hung 

The camera work in this film is nothing short of stunning. It not only soaks in every minute detail of its set design, it captures every nuance of the unfolding drama, seamlessly traversing the spiritual nature that exists between human connection and our connection with food. If both might find in themselves the trappings of a carnal nature, this film makes the case for the transcendent.

As it is with transcendent realities, such truths hinge on necessary revelation. Truths that are hidden. Truths that are revealed. Truths that are thus transformative in their nature, which bind us to the mystery. As the central character, an aging man living a storied love affair caught between trying to understand the mystery of human connection and the power of the culinary craft, suggests, we come to such Truths through a fusion of culture and memory, both of which are shaped by our experiences. There is one panoramic shot that does a full 360 through the kitchen, at once binding the present moment to the past in a way that embodies this observation in a visual sense. An example of how this film utilizes the form in a powerful way,

The beauty of the way the filmmakers shoot this film is that that the shared focus on the intimacy and the nuances of cooking food, and the equally stated intimacy of its complex human journey are paralleled in such a way that they tell the same story. The richness it finds in the art of creating a meal becomes a window into the richness of creating human relationship. Both ways in which we experience the world, and likewise each other.

More so, both ways in which we experience the transcendent. Together it drew my attention inwards and outwards simultaneously, reminding me that the space I occupy in this world by way of participation is one that rests in the reality of the transcendent. What we create binds us to that revelatory truth, and becomes a way of knowing the mystery that gives our experiences, our existence, meaning, especially in the face of its tragic notes. As the film so poignantly underscores, human ambition and human creativity can’t save us. However, such things can point us to and reveal that which can.