The Soul of Bread – Review

The local movie distributors must be very impressed with the business that You are the Apple of my Eye did in Singapore box office. That Taiwanese movie was the highest grossing Asian films of 2011 in Singapore, raking in $2.93 million (and counting) with relatively unknown stars.

Like many other male viewers, I was pretty much enthralled by the beautiful lead actress Michelle Chen and it’s very likely that these collective male fans would flock to buy a ticket to watch whatever she might be doing next. That’s probably why Michelle Chen’s latest movie The Soul of Bread 愛的麵包魂 is getting a theatrical release in Singapore on the 23th Feb 2012! An amazing feat as it’s only a few weeks after the commercial release in Taiwan (3rd Feb 2012) and we don’t usually get movies from the Asian region that quickly. From the trailer (embedded below), The Soul of Bread looks like it’s going to be a love triangle with the world of bakery as it’s backdrop. A charming foreigner and the local village guy competing to win the affection of a beautiful baker’s daughter.

It would be interesting to see how Michelle Chen’s follow up movie to You are the Apple of my Eyes would fare. The only thing in the trailer that didn’t work for would be Han Tien Chen’s performance as the local bumpkin. But then again, it’s just first impression from the trailer and it might be too hasty to judge.

I also feel that the usage of bakery as subject matter is quite a smart move. In recent years bread, cakes, pastries, and other forms of desserts are becoming rather popular in the Asian region. There’s already a couple of movies like Antique Bakery (Korean), Chonmage Purin (Japanese) and Patisserie Coin de rue (Japanese) that deals with the art of baking. There’s potential in this movie about baking and the showdown between bakers but it remains to be seen how it would be executed.