09/05/2026
There Is a Secret in My Soup (2001)
AKA: 人頭豆腐湯
Directed by: Yeung Chi Kin
Starring: Cherry Chan Chiu-Chiu (Maggie), Hugo Ng (Rocky), Gabriel Harrison (Joe), Christy Cheung Wing-Yin (Fei’s girlfriend), Chow Ka-yu (Joe’s girlfriend), Timothy Zao (Fei), Angela Tong Ying-Ying (Rocky’s wife), Michael Wong(Cop)
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese; Hong Kong - Chinese
Runtime: 01:23:38
Genres: Based on a True Story, Pr******te, Captivity, Violence against Women, Torture, S**t (mostly implied), Misc Paraphilias, Mild Canniabals
Plot – Spoilers:
Based on the notorious Hello Kitty Murder in Hong Kong, this is one of the two movies on the case to be featured here, the other being Human Pork Chop.
Maggie, who’s just had a kid needs the money and hooks up with a pimp known to her, but then steals from him. She’s then held captive in an attempt to recover the stolen money, but things escalate and the pimp and his accomplices begin torturing her, leading to her eventual death. Disposal of the body becomes a concern and the lot take to unique ways to get rid of it.
Personally, I preferred Human Pork Chop, mostly for Emily Kwan, who plays the victim more sympathetically. But this too has its effed up moments and if you’re interested in the case, watching both is a good idea. What’s quite fascinating though is the similarities in the screenplay of the two films. Both came out the same year and follow the same plotline – cops burst onto the crime scene, pick up the suspects for interrogation and the crime is visited in flashbacks. They both also depict Fan Man-yee (the irl woman) as stealing from her pimp, when she actually stole from a client. What’s shown more realistically here though is the role of the female accomplice in the torment and her age is closer to the irl 14-year-old who eventually panicked with hallucinations and ratted out the others. There’s also a sleazy aside here with one of the gang members and his girlfriend who get up to some odd stuff in his garage, including dousing her in some sort of engine oil and cotton waste and vacuuming her t**s.
This rip was taken off a DVD and the makers seem to have pussied out in a few places. For one, they blur out the Hello Kitty plushie, possibly fearing being sued by the company. This release also appears to cut out explicit bits when Maggie’s forced to eat s**t.
