Do you want to be special? And are you willing to pay the cost? Hunger, a Thailand Movie from 2023, tells a story about Aoy, a poor girl who cooks for her family restaurant, when one day she got hired to work for Chef Paul, the high priest of the culinary world. This movie invites you to look into what hides beneath every worldly beauty, only to find the abyss staring back at you in the depth.
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| Hunger © Netflix |
This movie was first recommended to me by my mom. We were on a flight to London, and she told, she recently seen a movie called Hunger. She said the movie was good, and coming from literature background as me, my mom said that the movie captures the world of the rich perfectly. “Everything is just performance, “ she said, “quality does matter, but in the end, how you present it counts the most!”
Until today, I believe our conversation that day didn’t happened as merely coincidence. My mom wants me to learn something from the story. I was about to start my study in the most prestigious arts university. Coming from a middle-class background, I was hoping that going there and graduated from reputable arts university will change the course of my life. I want to be special. I was as excited as Aoy, the main character of this movie, when she found out what “Hunger” is all about.
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| Hunger © Netflix |
“HUNGER” is an exclusive, luxurious, chef table team owned by Chef Paul. They are often hired to cook for the rich people. And what does that have to do with Aoy, poor girl from the forgotten part of Bangkok?
Aoy, spend her days mostly cooking for her family restaurant. Her father is way too old to stand behind the stove everyday. And she still has a little sister who got to pay the school tuition. One day, one of the Hunger’s team member visit Aoy’s family restaurant. His name is Ton. He quickly stand up after having a spoon of Aoy’s cooking, and he offers her a business card, saying that Aoy is too good for a place like that.
The same day, in the evening, Aoy’s friends from college come to visit. They talk about their life and wonders why they are all still struggling even after graduated a long time ago. One of them even say, “I really thought we could change the world.”
Then Aoy pull out the business card that Ton gave to her earlier and show her friends. She say, she got it from a weird guy visiting the restaurant in the afternoon. All the friends are furious, saying that they have heard about HUNGER a lot. Only people who are so rich who could afford to hire Chef Paul’s team.
Late at night, Aoy borrow her sister’s laptop to look up HUNGER. She sees how everyone is praising Chef Paul—by everyone, I mean, big names, celebrities, the royalties, etc. The writings in HUNGER’s website is also convincing, once you eat, you will always be hungry. Aoy truly believes that the offer from Ton to join HUNGER’s team could truly change the course of her life.
So the next day, when she is going about their day, cooking at her family restaurant, Aoy finds herself thinking, is this it? Is this what my whole life is going to be? What if she joins HUNGER’s team instead? And the way it burdens her mind is explicitly portrays by the actress Aokbab Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, without uttering a single word. Just when Aoy looks up, she sees Ton is waiting for her in his car across the restaurant to pick her up.
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| Hunger © Netflix |
When Aoy first meet Chef Paul, he asks, does Aoy whats to join the team? On a surprising note, Aoy answers, “I want to be special.” And that marks Ayo’s journey into the story, what it cost, what it truly takes, and what actually means to be special in the eyes of the world. Under the guidance of Chef Paul and Ton, Aoy learns a lot of things she never done before. Even a guy graduated from expensive culinary school, got surpassed by Aoy, all thanks to her strong-willed nature, and more importantly, her natural gift for cooking.
As time goes on, one by one of the HUNGER team got fired and quit. One of them even stabs Chef Paul out of anger. When Chef Paul is hospitalized, Aoy comes to visit him. She brings him a food that she usually makes at her family restaurant. Chef Paul likes it, and they have conversation about why each other wants to be a chef.
For Aoy, cooking means a lot more than making money or approval. Her family restaurant has been selling dishes with the passed down recipes from generation to generation. The deliciousness of the dishes is not something to be compromised. Understanding the skill and ingredient comes naturally for her.
While for Chef Paul, the reason why he wants to be a chef was his childhood memory. His late mother worked for a wealthy family. One day the son wants to eat caviar. Paul knows that caviar is very expensive, he wonders if it might taste as good as the price tag. When caught stealing, Paul’s mother had to work for months just to payback her master. Since that day, Paul adopted a view about the rich. “Poor people eat to satisfy their hunger,” he said to Aoy, “while rich people who can afford everything, the hunger never ends. That’s why I want them to be hungry for me.”
So it’s never been about the food or love for cookings for Chef Paul. It’s about the performance. From that scene on, as a viewer we started to understand Chef Paul’s objective. Why he is the way he is. Chef Paul is willing to break any boundaries, and that what makes him so special in the eyes of the world.
In the climax of this movie, Aoy and Chef Paul part ways, because Aoy doesn’t want to be involve in illegal activity where Chef Paul agreed to cook a protected animal for a very rich person. Aoy quits right away, along with Ton. Ton starts her own business, while Aoy got hired by a wealthy business man to run a fine dining restaurant as a head chef.
It should be a good moment for Aoy. She could pay her Father’s hospital bill, the boss loves her, the customers lining up just to see her and eat the food. But Aoy is starting to miss her family, miss her simple life.
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| Hunger © Netflix |
One night, after Aoy fails to invite her friend over to her place, Chef Paul comes to her restaurant and they talk once again. Aoy presents him with the dishes she made for the restaurant, but Chef Paul gives no comments after trying it out. He said that his comment means nothing, the customer likes her and that’s what most important. However, to her surprise, Chef Paul notices that Aoy is in the beginning of her road to success. “Scary isn’t it?” He asks her.
As Aoy begins to manage the restaurant as a head chef, she looses a lot of things. She has to be away from her family, she looses her boyfriend, Ton, and it is only the beginning for her. Chef Paul makes it clear to her during that conversation, to be special in the eyes of the world is that costly. It won’t ever going to end, Chef Paul remarks, one day Aoy will wonder if she is too old, if maybe she is loosing her charm, and so on and so on. Then Chef Paul tells her, he is also going to attend the special birthday event, that Aoy is not going to be the only chef to serve at the party.
At the party, Aoy serves delicious dishes. Everything is simple with her. No acts, no performance, she cooks and gives as best as she could. Meanwhile Chef Paul, already being the star Chef of the party, put on some crazy performance; with the meet dangling in the middle of the room, getting sliced by a sword, and then burned by fire wood bellow it. It looks barbaric, bold, and daring, compared to Aoy’s delicate and simplistic style of serving.
In the end, Aoy looses. Chef Paul gains all the attention, and he walks towards her just to tell her that everything has been decided from the beginning. Chef Paul’s popularity will always precedes the taste of the food. “Those people believe in me,” he said, and no matter how delicious Aoy’s food is, it will never beat the beliefs that people already have of him. Aoy cries as she looks at his face, but I don’t know why she cries here, perhaps she feels torn because Chef Paul able to proof her wrong about her beliefs.
However, to everyone surprise, police come to the party to capture Chef Paul for breaking the law—cooking a protected animal. Turns out Aoy’s boss and her ex-boyfriend, Ton, had been spilling the evidence to the police. They believe, with Chef Paul now eliminated from the competition, Aoy could come on top and replace him forever.
But Aoy feels unhappy. She doesn’t want any of that. Aoy turns down the offer from her boss, refuses to be another pawn in another sick rich people game. She decides to walk home and meet her father. In her father’s embrace, Aoy cries. Then after gaining her strength back, she decides to take over the family restaurant for good. She is going to play and start her own game there. And that’s where the movie ends.
What is the meaning of the ending and the story as a whole?
This is only my interpretation however, I believe that despite their different philosophy, Aoy respect Chef Paul still. Proven by her willingness to hear what Paul has to say about her food when she finally becomes the head chef at her restaurant. Chef Paul was her mentor, and she realize just how much Paul is willing to go to please the rich. They separate ways when Aoy could no longer follow Paul and break the law. It was when they cook a protected animal—showing the line Aoy would not cross to be like her mentor.
The rich hungry for him, just like Paul always wanted from them. So hungry, even a family who was about to kill themselves hired Paul to have their one last meal, showing how much power Chef Paul reputation is.
When Aoy sees the news on television about the family, Aoy understands everything; why former teammate dared to stabbed Paul. It was not explicitly shown if the former teammate know anything about the family the served, but it was apparent as the former teammate who quit and stabbed Paul was the longest team member in HUNGER. That revelation later made Aoy visits Paul at the hospital, and they later have a conversation about why they become chefs.
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| Hunger © Netflix |
At the birthday party, when Aoy clearly loses to Chef Paul to get the attention in the room, it is also becoming clear for her that the rich is never her target market in the first place. The rich don’t understand what a good food is—they will never understand what love is—no matter how much Aoy tries to cook with love. When Aoy serves her family signature dish, even giving a monologue about why dish is important for her, all party attendees only comments on how nice the smell of the dish is. When Chef Paul comments on his reputation—that he is winning the room—it further highlight that the rich care about something else, something that Aoy could never relate or willing to become; Chef Paul.
That is the reason why Aoy decides to go home instead. She decides to start and play at her own game. She would rather cook for ordinary people who will appreciate her more than the rich. She decides to define what “special” and “success” mean for her. No longer following other people’s definition of them.
Not only that, Aoy comes back different than when she left. She is aware that she is, indeed, special. But in order to live as someone special, she doesn’t have to sacrifice everything dear to her. Because she finally find the place where she truly belongs.
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| Hunger © Netflix |
But, wait, so what does it mean to be special?
Again, this is my interpretation of the story. There is a reason why the title of the movie is HUNGER. Remember when Aoy and her new boss was having a conversation about the menu. He said that he hired Aoy because he saw that Aoy is special, he didn't hire Aoy because he wants Chef Paul's specialty. "You are still in your comfort zone," he said to her, he wants Aoy to do what she does best. He doesn't want Aoy to play it safe.
Aoy's biggest strength is her ability to control the fire––literally she first hired as fried chef, and figuratively she doesn't have enough hunger to want a worldly success and recognition as Chef Paul. Aoy knows when to stop herself, when to know it's enough.
That is what makes Aoy special from the beginning to the end, that's what sets Aoy apart from other characters in the movie. Because of her innate ability, she got hired as one of Chef Paul's team in HUNGER, later she got hired as the head chef for a fine dinning restaurant called "FLAME".
When Aoy asked her boss to give her ex-boyfriend, Ton, a chance, her boss said that Ton doesn't need someone great, he only wants someone special. And this is where Aoy's boss highlight what is the difference between great and special.
Greatness is about skill, at least in this movie, that's how they translate and define the term. For Aoy's boss, there are many great people out there, but looking for someone special is not as easy. But special is something else. Special, as this movie portrays, means daring to show the world who they truly are. For example, Aoy's specialty of controlling the FLAME, and Chef Paul never ending HUNGER that infects his customer.
Do you get the idea?
Aoy's journey in this movie, from beginning to the end, is about her figure out that she doesn't need to be someone else, she doesn't need to be like Chef Paul, to be special. Her journey is a journey of self-discovery; what special means for her personally? What truly matters in her life? And who she really is?
Working with Chef Paul, makes her realizes all the things that she is NOT. She is not someone who wants to cook only for the rich, she wants to cook to bring happiness––portrayed by the little girl who gave her a pink star––she doesn't want to break the law just to be great, she doesn't want to betray her friends or teammates, not even wanting to betray her former mentor––when Chef Paul got caught.
She knows fire very well, and she knows that if she stays where she is––working for the FLAME restaurant––she will get burnt eventually. So she stops. She comes back to her house and her family restaurant to start again from the beginning, and set her own rules and game.
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