TCCF Project: Peter Ho’s ‘Appetite for Desire’ Reflects on Greed, Exotic Foods and Disease (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Sophia Sun Intern American-Taiwanese actor and director Peter Ho (“Wind and Cloud”) is at the 2023 Taiwan Creative Content Fest with in-development film project “Appetite for Desire.” The completed picture is intended to be a 120 minute film that tells the story of clout-chasing YouTubers Yong Cheng and Gao Wei who are introduced to a mysterious dish called Kappa meat by their high school classmate.

The magic Kappa meat gives them temporary superpower which allows them to create more extreme video contents. However, as Yong Cheng and Gao Wei become more and more reliant on it, a darker secret about it is being revealed. “The inspiration of the film derives from the Asian eating habit of ‘Shi-Bu’, which is to eat therapeutically,” producer Patrick Mao Huang at Flash Forward Entertainment told Variety. “We aim to present a film filled with Asian culture and intended for the audience worldwide.” The film is also being produced with Circle Luna and Content Digital Film. “In Asia, a nice dish is evaluated through color, aroma, and taste as well as the rareness and value of the ingredients.

It is believed that whatever your body lacks, you can make it up with the food you eat,” Ho says. “The food people eat has also become a display of their social status.

Over decades, people have found all sorts of unusual recipes to eat.” The script incorporates elements of humor, sarcasm and Ho’s contemplation on the impact of COVID-19.