Simmer - Short Narrative

A young kitchen hand strives for a second chance on her parents’ cooking show in Hong Kong, ignoring her older brother’s harsh warnings.

Simmer is a short drama that explores the quiet turbulence of familial expectation, cultural identity, and self-worth through the lens of food and performance. At its heart, the film examines the pressures placed on second-generation children to meet the standards of their parents, especially within families where success and respect are tied to skill, discipline, and sacrifice. Sunny’s story is a meditation on failure and redemption, framed within the universal act of cooking a language of love that becomes, for her, both a burden and a means of connection.