Eat Drink Man Woman
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Movie Reviews of Eat Drink Man Woman
Movie Review: A Culinary and Emotional Feast to Enjoy...
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is set in Taipei, and is spoken in Mandarin. The opening scene of this movie shows Master Chef Chu at work in his own kitchen at home in preparation for "the Sunday dinner." (My mouth was watering after the first 5 minutes.) It's a ritual in the Chu family for the [widowed] father to get together with his three daughters for this weekly meal no matter how tight the schedules of or how unwilling the daughters are to come. The eldest daughter is a devout Christian and high school chemistry teacher. The second daughter is an airline executive and the youngest daughter is a fast food chain cashier.All three daughters aren't married and aren't in any serious relationships at the beginning of the story. But as the movie progresses and each of them find love under the strangest of circumstances, each has an "announcement" to make around the dinner table come Sunday. The audience can't help but feel bad for the father who's getting old and seems to be at odds with her daughters for every small matter.
Each daughter's relationship reflects the uniqueness of individuals.
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The important theme to this story is hinted at when the father repeats to his daughters that he has lost his taste a long time ago. The audience later knows that he was referring more to his taste for life rather than his physical inability to distinguish flavors. This lack of appreciation for life comes with age as well as his loneliness from accepting the inevitable -- that his daughters are going to leave him alone someday.
There are so many subtleties this film is able to capture about not only the Chinese culture but living with women in general. (I grew up in a household where I was the only male, and I know what the father must have gone through each day.)
I highly, highly recommend this film. As an added incentive, I intentionally left out the surprise ending hinted at on the back cover, as well as other minor details. Feast your eyes and mouth on this exquisite film!
Movie Review: The rare gourmet meal
Summary: 5 Stars
I often chose to read what others thought of a movie before I write my own review, and I generally gravitate to the reviews that are contrary to my own because I want to know what perhaps I missed or willfully ignored the first time through. I loved Eat Drink Man Woman so I had to read some of the one and two star reviews to see why others disliked it so much. From what I've gathered, the negativity underscores larger issues I have with so much of the crap that comes out of Hollywood. That a movie as touching, heartfelt, and lovely as this is seen as boring to others proves my larger point; movies like Eat Drink Man Woman aren't made enough in America and when they do get made, they are often watered down adaptations of grander ideas, streamlined for the short attention span Hollywood has helped create. In other words; in the absence of Seth Rogan's on-going juvenile antics or Saw-like torture, what movie is truly worthwhile to the typical American movie-goer?
Sarcasm aside, there is so much to revel in here; mouthwatering food, the artistry of its preparation, the need to follow our truest calling, the mystery of love, the tempestuous and conflicting nature of family relations, and the universal scope of all of these issues. Ang Lee delivers a delicious feast of humanity that satisfied my hunger for movies that value artistic integrity over box office receipts. True to the food theme of this beautiful work, for every hundred fast food joints, spread like choking dandelions across the landscape, there blooms one lovely flower of a restaurant where the food is expertly prepared and where time slows to allow the splendor of the moment to envelope you and open your senses to the totality of the experience. Eat Drink Man Woman is such an experience.
Movie Review: Time To Grow Up
Summary: 5 Stars
Eat Drink Man Woman is the type of film you watch on a relaxed or rainy day. Seeing the film in it's original language creates more drama and sympathy for the father who is a chef and no longer has his sense of taste and his three daughters that suffer from a boring routine schedule of a full plate of work and even more plates of food. One daughter is a student the other a teacher and the eldest is a hard working executive.
Raising three daughters is hard for a widower and being raised by a widower is even harder. The story is set when everyone starts getting a life and they're all worried about how the change is going to effect the family but the one who you would expect to care most doesn't. Dad takes the change ok because of the recent lost of his best friend who worked as his taste buds when he lost his own.
Things start to get more complicated as both daughters fall in love with co-workers and the youngest falls for her best friends boyfriend. Through all of these complications they still make it home for a big dinner not prepared to the fullest thanks to their father not being able to tell if the taste is right. The biggest surprise and twist is their father has been keeping a huge secret from his family and another family. Eat Drink Man Woman is a film of love, lust, and eventually happiness and it shows you not to be afraid of change and living without your parent's babying you. A film full of comedy and joy plus a dash of jaw dropping twist it is sure to make a comfortable day even more relaxed.
Movie Review: "It's Like Cooking, Your Appetite's Gone When The Dish Is Done"
Summary: 5 Stars
Note: Chinese with English subtitles.
Chinese, widowed father and professional chef Tao Chu (Sihung Lung) cooks a sumptous meal every Sunday evening for his three grown, single daughters who still live at home whether they want it or not. Though retired, he also continues to help out at a prestigious restaurant when his expertise is required. The strange thing about all this food preparation is the fact that Tao has lost his sense of taste since his wife's death and cannot truly enjoy his wonderful culinary creations.
The only real familial interaction takes place around the dinnertable and even there the communication is poor. Tao is a private man who expresses his love in the preparation of the meal. His daughter's Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei-Yang), Jia-Chen (Chien-Lein Wu) and Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang) don't appreciate their Father's efforts and can't wait to find husbands and move out.
As the story progresses they all find their own way in life and one by one move out. Unexpected by the daughter's, their Father has also been active and finds a young wife and a new life.
Beautiful poetic story, in an almost flawless production. In the end when his daughter Jia-Chen prepares a meal for her Father he miraculously rediscovers his taste buds. Touching, emotionally understated ending like most Asian films are. Very Highly Recommended!!
Movie Review: A Great Representation of Modern Chinese Family Culture
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're willing to read subtitles this is an excellent foreign film, set in Taiwan, about the importance of and the tight connection between a person's individual identity and his/her family life in Chinese society and culture. The work lives, interpersonal lives, and spiritual lives of four main characters are explored and interwoven, with the Sunday dinner table being the terminus at which they all meet and from which we switch characters and depart on the continuing exploration of each person's life. Each of the main character's lives would be interesting enough for its own full-length movie; so together they keep you thinking and interested from opening to closing credits. In this masterful cultural portrait of the balanced interplay between life and death, work and love, family and self, food and deprivation, Ang Lee allows us to see and experience the intimate details of a major world culture, which is vastly different from our own in the western world. The popular theme of traditional Chinese culture being impacted by modern life is addressed in a more realistic, less overdone, manner than in many movies, and the multi-generational presentation of interwoven lives makes it more easily understandable and complete. This is a movie that will leave you with a warm smile of satisfaction and deeper understanding of what it is to be a person on this planet.