Themes: Cooks and Chefs, Generation Gap, Fathers and Daughters
Main Cast: Sihung Lung, Yang Kuei-Mei, Wu Chien-lien, Wang Yu-Wen, Ah-Leh Gua
Release Year: 1994
Country: TW
Run Time: 123 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Director Ang Lee's follow-up to his surprise box-office hit The Wedding Banquet is another look at ethnic and sexual conflicts in a Chinese family, with meals as a centerpiece of the film. Master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) is a long-time widower who lovingly cooks large Sunday dinners for his three daughters, who view the meals as too traditional. Secretly, however, successful airline executive Jia-Chien (Chien-Lien Wu) loves traditional cooking and would like to be a chef like her father, if women were permitted to do so. Her older sister Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) is unmarried and cynical about men, but she becomes attracted to a volleyball coach and eventually pursues him vigorously. The youngest daughter, Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang), is a college student who becomes pregnant from her frequent sexual escapades. As the film progresses, the personal relationships between the daughters and their significant others change unexpectedly. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Review
His follow-up to his breakthrough success The Wedding Banquet (1993), Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) is another wise comedy-drama of manners about life, love, and the Taiwanese generation gap. With food as the sensory analogue to familial relationships, Lee's attention to detail deftly mines the varied emotions as well as the humor in master chef Mr. Chu's attempts to deal with his adult daughters' different stabs at independence (and his own burgeoning romance) as he loses his sense of taste. The superb opening scene of Mr. Chu's bravura preparation of the customary, and resented, Sunday family feast not only reveals the affection for his daughters that he cannot articulate, but also is guaranteed to inspire cravings for gourmet Chinese food. Praised for its charm and skill, Eat Drink Man Woman became another genial art house hit for Lee and earned him his second Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Cast
Sihung Lung - Chu
Yang Kuei-Mei - Jen
Wu Chien-lien - Kien
Wang Yu-Wen
Ah-Leh Gua - Madame Liang
Sylvia Chang - Jin-Rong; Winston Chao - Li Kai; Lester Chen - Chin-Cheng Lu
Credit
James Schamus - Associate Producer, Ted Hope - Associate Producer, Ang Lee - Director, Tim Squyres - Editor, Mader - Composer (Music Score), Tom Paul - Musical Direction/Supervision, Fu-Hsiung Lee - Production Designer, Jong Lin - Cinematographer, Jiang Feng-Chyi - Producer, Lan Ta-Peng - Producer, Hsu Li-kong - Producer, Hsi-Chien Lee - Set Designer, James Schamus - Screenwriter, Ang Lee - Screenwriter, Wang Hui-Ling - Screenwriter
This film tells the story of a semi-retired and widowed Chinese master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) and his family living in modern day Taipei, Taiwan. At the start of the film, he lives with his three attractive daughters, all of whom are unattached. The three daughters are:
Jia-Jen, the oldest one (Kuei-Mei Yang), a school teacher with a broken heart
Jia-Chien, the middle one (Chien-lien Wu), a career woman
Jia-Ning, the youngest one (Yu-Wen Wang), a twenty year old
As the film progresses, each daughter encounters new men. When these new relationships blossom, their roles are broken and the living situation within the family changes.
A major theme of the movie is that romantic relationships give life meaning and are necessities of life (such as eating and drinking).
The film features numerous scenes displaying the technique and artistry of gourmet Chinese cooking. Since the family members have difficulty expressing their love for one another, the intricate preparation of banquet quality dishes for their Sunday dinners serves as a surrogate for the spoken expression of their familial feelings.
Another theme is the burden of aging. Chef Chu is depicted as having lost his "one true love" (his wife), losing another (his ability to taste) and about to lose all three daughters to marriage, not to mention the usual spectre of old age.
Notes
The title is an old expression elaborating two main desires in human nature - "to eat and drink and to have sex", contemplated upon by Chu with his long-time friend while both were inebriated.
