\n\tXu Fu went to the Middle East for the money. The Shenyang cook, played by Shen Teng in \u201cOnce Upon a Time in the Middle East,\u201d takes the head-chef job at the Dragon Restaurant because the pay could help clear his family\u2019s debts. When war breaks out, he is shaken from his sleep and runs for an air-raid shelter.<\/p>\n
\n\tDirector Wen Muye says he never stopped to think about how grand the film\u2019s backdrop was.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAlthough the backdrop may seem very large, for a specific little person \u2013 an ordinary person \u2013 this is a very concrete predicament that he has to face,\u201d Wen tells Variety. \u201cWe try not to consider how grand it is; we only consider how great an impact it has on the character.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tChinese audiences have followed that cook a long way. Since opening on Aug. 11, the film has grossed RMB2.29 billion ($342 million) in China, making it the third-highest-grossing Chinese film of 2026. It is Wen\u2019s follow-up to \u201cDying to Survive\u201d and \u201cNice View.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe idea came from a news report and from the experiences of real Chinese cooks who run restaurants in the region.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFor me, Xu Fu is still an ordinary person, an ordinary chef,\u201d Wen says. \u201cWhat he goes through is in fact connected to the work he does as a chef, the food he makes, and his relationship with war. There is room there to express the relationship between war and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShen is one of China\u2019s biggest stars and is closely tied to comedy. Wen says that reputation was part of his thinking when he cast him in a war drama.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut the fundamental premise was first and foremost that Shen Teng was very suitable for the role of Xu Fu. In my mind, Xu Fu is a middle-aged Northeastern chef with a sense of humor, and Shen Teng is comparatively very well suited to the role,\u201d he says. \u201cAt the same time, he has the ability and talent for comedic performance, which naturally brings a certain sense of ease to some of the heavier themes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWith restaurant manager Ma Junsheng (Jiang Qiming), Xu Fu turns the failing restaurant into a going concern. Once the fighting reaches the city, it becomes a shelter for people trapped by the war. Wen wanted to follow an ordinary cook through a conflict, and the restaurant came with the job.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAt first, it exists and prospers; later, it disappears from the protagonist\u2019s view; and in the end, after the protagonist has grown old and returns to the Chinese restaurant, he sees that it is still standing there,\u201d Wen says. \u201cThis is in fact a symbol of a certain kind of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFor much of the story, Xu Fu looks out for himself and treats the war as someone else\u2019s problem. That changes when Ma is killed rescuing children whom terrorists are forcing to become suicide bombers. Wen says he didn\u2019t set out to ask what ordinary people owe one another.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think it is driven by human nature \u2013 whether Xu Fu or Ma Junsheng, these characters are driven by instinct,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tTo prepare, the team interviewed many people working in the region. They spoke to cooks, to workers from a wide range of trades and to locals who had lived through the war. Wen then tried to put himself in each character\u2019s place at each moment.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI never think about social issues in advance. What I actually want to tell is the story of specific people,\u201d Wen says. \u201cWar and peace are certainly one theme of this film, but if you always write characters with that idea in mind, there will actually be problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOmar Sherif plays Seif, a Kurdish Iraqi orphan who becomes Xu Fu\u2019s apprentice. Aarif Lee makes a special appearance as Tony, a Chinese American private in the U.S. Army, and Sherif Sobhy plays Zaid, a civil servant and restaurant shareholder whom the war drives to seek revenge.<\/p>\n
\n\tWen wrote the screenplay with Lang Qunli and Zhong Wei, his co-writer on \u201cDying to Survive\u201d and \u201cNice View.\u201d Ning Hao is executive producer; Wen joined Ning\u2019s Dirty Monkeys\u2019 72 Transformations Film Project in 2016. Wen studied under Tian Zhuangzhuang at the Beijing Film Academy, and \u201cDying to Survive\u201d won him best new director at the 2018 Golden Horse Awards.<\/p>\n
\n\tWell Go USA Entertainment releases the film in North America on Oct. 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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