Chef Xu Fu did not set out to save a city. He set out to pay off his debts and feed his family. Directed by Wen Muye and written by Wen Muye, Lang Qunli and Wei Zhong, the film follows Xu Fu as he travels to the Middle East to run a failing restaurant, Dragon Restaurant, alongside its manager Ma Junsheng. The war that eventually engulfs the city is not the point of the story; it is the wall that the story climbs.
The film is a drama first and a war movie second, and that order matters. It is a story about people who cook for a living, and it treats their work with the same gravity that war movies usually reserve for battlefield heroics. Xu Fu is played by Shen Teng, Ma Junsheng by Jiang Qiming, and the local cast features Omar Sherif as Seif, Aarif Rahman as Tony, Sherif Sabry as Zayd and Ahmed Salim as Ali. This is a cast built for a story that is intimate before it is epic, and the film trusts that intimacy to hold up through the chaos.
Trailer, via SGCloverFilms.
The Cooking That Runs the Show
The movie opens with Xu Fu in a foreign city, standing in a kitchen that is not his own. He is not a local hero; he is a man who has failed back home and is trying to rebuild something from nothing. The restaurant he takes over is failing, and the film spends its first act showing exactly how that failure feels. The kitchen is cramped, the orders are late, and the staff is exhausted. Xu Fu works with Ma Junsheng to turn it around, and the film shows the work in detail: the prep, the timing, the service, the closing.
It is a slow burn, and it is the right slow burn. The film trusts the audience to sit with the daily grind before it gives in to spectacle. When the war arrives, the restaurant’s success is not abstract; it is the thing on the line. The food is the currency of the story, and the people who make it are the heroes.
Ma Junsheng’s Partner
Ma Junsheng is not just a manager. He is the partner who shares the kitchen with Xu Fu, and their scenes together are the emotional core of the film. Jiang Qiming plays him with a quiet authority that anchors every scene. The two men do not talk about their feelings; they work. That work is the language they share, and the film respects that language by never forcing a confession on them.
The relationship between the two men is the engine that keeps the story moving, and it never stops working. When the war closes in, Ma Junsheng is not a side character; he is the person Xu Fu has built his life around. The film understands that a man who can run a kitchen can also run a shelter, and it treats that transition with dignity.
The War That Arrives
The war arrives in the film’s second act, and it is a brutal arrival. The city is not a backdrop; it is a character in its own right, and the film shows its collapse with a grim, documentary eye. The restaurant becomes a refuge for those caught in the conflict, and the film never lets the audience forget the stakes. This is not a war movie with a side story about food; it is a food movie with a side story about war.
The film’s tagline, “Eat well, stay alive,” captures this perfectly. The food is not a luxury; it is a survival tool. The story never pretends that the two are separate. When the danger closes in, Xu Fu must risk everything to protect the people who have gathered around his restaurant, and the film makes that risk feel real. The danger is not an abstraction; it is the closing door, the sniper’s bullet, the hungry soldier.
A Beacon Amid the Destruction
The film’s ending is a small victory, not a grand one. It is a victory in the sense that the restaurant survives, and in the sense that the people who gathered around it are still standing. The beacon of hope the film promises is not a banner; it is a light in the window of a working restaurant. The destruction around them is immense, but the film never lets that destruction erase the people inside it.
The film’s final scenes are quiet, and they are the most honest scenes in the whole story. The destruction is real, but the hope is not abstract. It is the man who cooks, the man who manages, and the people who sit at the table. The film does not offer a solution to the war; it offers a refusal to be broken by it. That refusal is small, but it is also true.
The Numbers Behind the Film
- Runtime: 141 minutes
- Rating: NR
- Director: Wen Muye
- Writers: Wen Muye, Lang Qunli, Wei Zhong
- Release date: 2026-08-08
- Audience score: 9.0/10 from 46 TMDB votes
The film’s audience score is a 9.0/10 from 46 votes, a figure that reflects how well the film connects with viewers on its own terms. It is a film that understands its own limits and works within them with discipline. The war is a force, not a theme; the food is a character, not a symbol. The film never pretends to be something it is not, and that honesty is what makes it work.
“Eat well, stay alive.”
The film ends with Xu Fu and Ma Junsheng still in the kitchen, still cooking, still serving. The war is still out there, but the restaurant is still running. The film does not resolve the conflict; it simply shows that the kitchen holds. That is the message of the movie, and it is the right message. A man who can cook can survive almost anything.
“Once Upon a Time in the Middle East” is a film about doing the work that matters when the world around you stops making sense. It is a film about small acts of kindness in a terrible place, and it is a film about men who will not let their restaurant fail, even when the city next door is falling apart. It is a film built on simple, hard work, and it is a film that understands that that work is its own kind of valor.
The film is 141 minutes long, and not a minute of it feels wasted. Every scene serves the story, and every character serves the scene. The film is honest, disciplined and emotionally true. It does not overreach, and it does not underreach. It simply tells its story, and it tells it well.
This is a film that understands that the best way to survive a war is to keep the food coming. It is a film that understands that a restaurant is not just a business; it is a community. It is a film that understands that a chef is not just a cook; he is a leader. And it is a film that understands that the people who gather around a table are the ones who will survive, no matter what the world throws at them.
The film is not perfect. It is a drama with war in it, not a war movie with drama. It is a film about a man who cooks, not a man who fights. But it is a film that understands that those two things are not mutually exclusive. A man who can feed people can also protect them, and the film trusts that trust to carry the story.
The film has earned its audience score. It is a film that respects its own material, and it is a film that respects its own audience. It is a film that says what it means and means what it says. It is a film that is worth watching, and it is a film that is worth remembering.
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