Arts and Culture

Chinese movie review : "Eat Drink Man Woman"

Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Sihung Lung, Kuei Mei Yang, Chien Lien Wu, Yu Wen Wang
Year: 1994
Running time: 123 minutes
Language: Mandarin
Country: Taiwan
Certificate: 15

Synopsis

An old widower chef of Taipei's most famous restaurant retires because of he loses his sense of taste. He has three daughters, all of whom are completely differently from each other and live very different lives.

The eldest daughter is a schoolteacher, who is on the road to spinster-hood and has never gotten over her first love at university.
The second daughter is a headstrong successful career woman. She does not get on with her father because they're too much alike and because she was discouraged to follow his footsteps to become a chef.
The youngest daughter is a university student working in a fast food restaurant and enjoys giving relationship advice to friends regarding issues which she knows little about.

Review

There are so many reasons to love this film.

Firstly it's one of those real gems of a comedy from director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Wedding Banquet) whose sense of human relationship is apt for this tale of irony where things are not what they appear to be. The four members of the family do not communicate well with each other and probably know very little about what each other are doing in their lives. The traditional Sunday family gatherings are the only time the family members sit down and communicate with each other. These are the times when each member makes announcements about their lives which are surprising and shocking and there is a classic twist at the end.

Secondly if you love food, you'll love this film because of what the father cooks for his family, you'll marvel at how wonderful those dishes look and wonder how they are cooked. Ang Lee was reported to have said that he had difficulty finding new ways of preparing the food even though the cooking scenes probably appeared less than a minute in total running time.

Verdict

It's a comedy of a single father looking after his three grown up daughters. It tells of the love relationship of the four family members and their relationship with each other. This is as good as entertainment gets.

5 out of 5

Wendy Wong

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