Eat Drink Man Woman
Synopsis
The film tells the story of a retired and widowed Chinese master chef Chu (Si Hung 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. As the film progresses, each of the daughters encounters new men in their lives. When these new relationships blossom, the stereotypes are broken and the living situation within the family changes.. The film features several scenes displaying the techniques and artistry of gourmet Chinese cooking. Since the family members have difficulty expressing their love for each other, the intricate preparation of banquet quality dishes for their Sunday dinners is the surrogate for their familial feelings.
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I've been meaning to see this picture for a long time. It is a lovely picture that makes you want to do nothing more than spend a day making delicious, intricate meals. A lovely, time with interesting characters and a showcase of Northern Taiwan life.
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I've let the film sit with me for a while, since my initial reaction was somewhat unfavorable. I didn't dislike it in the slightest, but I felt it left something to be desired. Having had time to think about it however, my estimation has grown in time. I loved the portrayal of the protagonist's repression, and the dinner scenes were great. It shares a lot of thematic territory with Lee's follow-up film The Ice Storm (one of my favorite films of all time), but it's a wonderful precursor to themes he'd later expand on and handle even more beautifully.
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Anyone on a diet should watch this lovely Chinese comedy on a full stomach; otherwise, your local Asian restaurant will beckon. In form it’s a bit like King Lear: the great cook Mr. Chu (Sihung Lung) creates culinary works of art that he can’t taste, and his three willful daughters, driven by ambition and love, are slipping away from him.
The younger daughter (Yu-Wen Wang), who works at Wendy’s, meets a heartsick boy (he sits on his moped reading Dostoyevsky) and promptly gets pregnant; the older daughter (Kuei-Mei Yang), a high-school teacher and devout Christian still smarting from a bad relationship nine years ago, falls for a hunky volleyball coach and promptly gets married; the middle daughter (Chien-Lien Wu), a…
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Interesting, well told movie. Beautiful shots. Touching story.
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Sleep Pee Boy Lass describes parts of the film rather well. It's a robust family drama, of course, but even an early Ang Lee feature's going to have problems.
Lee's story covers some interesting relationships with just the best quantity of detail, but I feel like he skipped over the youngest daughter's specifics, and the movie suffers all the more for it. Jia-Ning looks sweet, but she doesn't receive the same level of development as Jia-Jen, which would have balanced out the story progression by detracting some unnecessary details from Jia-Chien's plot-line. I also don't appreciate the inconsistent editing that crops up towards the end of the film, including context manatees like the traffic montages and cluttered family dinner sequences…
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Foreign Film, Taiwan, Romance, Comedy, Drama
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my favourite Ang Lee movie. Be sure to have some yummy chinese food in the house if you watch eat drink man woman. You will get hungry!
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delightful, charming, entertaining and even occasionally profound - despite the spotty acting, odd character development and the somewhat sappy music.
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This early work by Ang Lee is about a theme that runs through the directors work: difficult familial relationships. This is an example of a 90s Miramax “friendly” foreign film, the kind of thing that would probably not get a ton of critical acclaim if it had been in English in spite of its general acceptableness. It’s a good melodrama with some interesting characters, and it also has some really visually intresting scenes of gourmet Chinese cooking, but the film did not jump out at me as a brilliant piece of work. For Lee completists and people looking for a nice little unchallenging viewing only.