Synopsis:
Once a famous chef, Hao’s Chinese restaurant is now an unpopular destination. He despises the fact that people nowadays do not respect traditional dishes and he has become a bitter old man. Hao’s only hope is that his grandson Mark enters a prestigious university, but Mark’s dream is to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become a chef. Hao’s restaurant is on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to save the restaurant, Mark enters a TV cooking contest in Shanghai, called Final Recipe. He competes against talented young chefs from around the region and freely shows off ravishing cooking skills that he has accumulated from his grandfather over the years. Meanwhile, contest producer Julia (Michelle Yeoh) hopes that her husband and world-renowned chef David (Chin Han) enters the contest and rediscovers his love for cooking. As Mark wins round after round and gains attention, Julia slowly realizes that Mark and her husband David shares a secret that they don’t yet know.

Director's Biography:
Gina Kim (b. 1973) received her MFA from Cal Arts and a BFA from Seoul National University. Her feature-length films, GINA KIM’'S VIDEO DIARY, INVISIBLE LIGHT, and NEVER FOREVER, have screened at prestigious film festivals, including Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, Vancouver, Yamagata Documentary, Buenos Aires, Pusan, Deauville and Sundance, among many others. Kim’s works, which have crossed over documentary and fiction forms, garnered impressive critical acclaim. INVISIBLE LIGHT won the special award at the 2004 Seoul Women’s Film Festival and NEVER FOREVER, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, was awarded the Jury Prize at the 2007 Deauville American Film Festival. In regards to NEVER FOREVER (starring Vera Farmiga and Ha Jung-Woo), Variety wrote, “Kim's highly sensitive camera turns the film into a chamber-piece of hushed eroticism and surprising narrative grip.” Martin Scorsese has also called NEVER FOREVER, "A moving experience [in which] the performances are wonderful and touching, and the style…intense and very precise." Kim's new documentary, FACES OF SEOUL recently had its world premiere at the 66th Venice Film Festival where she sat on the Orizzonti Jury. Gina Kim is now in development of several commercial film projects both in Hollywood and in Korea. Kim taught film production and film theory classes at Harvard University as a full-time lecturer for three years from 2004 to 2007.