Producer: Daniel Yu

When the main story takes centre stage, the viewer’s interest is likely to be lost and the plot-holes difficult to reconcile.

Social realist cinema can be the most edifying and informative genre the medium can offer, but Ho Yu-Hang’s style is such that the only sensation to get from the screen is mild hyperthermia.

‘The Butcher, the Chef & the Swordsman’ may be an uneven yoking of brilliance and banality, but it is so heavily stacked in favour of the former that this still proves to be a film of great interest.