Eat Drink Man Woman

Starring:Chang, Chao, Gua, Lung, Wang, Wu, Yang
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

This is not a movie to see on an empty stomach. Writer-director Ang Lee's 1994 Oscar nominee tells a family story about a chef and his three daughters through the meals the chef prepares and serves his family. This touching, dryly funny story of a family coping with personal lives and the way those lives intersect with the family relationships captures a shift in generations in Taipei. The father, a famous chef who has lost his taste buds, still cooks, though he draws no pleasure from eating. His daughters, meanwhile, deal with both the disappointments and surprises of daily living and the way their adult lives compare to the expectations the widowed father had for them. A subtle, amusing--and mouth-watering--comedy of impeccable manners. --Marshall Fine

Description

From celebrated director Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility) comes a movieso visually stunning that it spans the "beautiful balance of elementsmellow, harmonious and poignantly funny" (The Washington Post). This "charming study of love, family and tradition" (Leonard Maltin) "tickles both mind and body" (Movie Reviews UK). Trouble is cooking forwidower and master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) who's about to discover that no matter how dazzling and delicious his culinary creations might be, they're no match for the libidinous whims of his three beautiful but rebellious daughters. A master in the kitchen, Chu is at a loss when it comes to the ingredients of being a father. Every Sunday, he whips up a delicacy of dishes for his ungrateful daughters, who are so self-consumed that they don't see his attempt at showing them lovegastronomically.So, as relationships sour and communications break down, Chu concocts a sure-fire recipe that will bring his family back together: He creates his own love affair to rival his daughters' affections!

Customer Reviews:

Eat Drink Man Woman.......2007-05-29

One of my favorite movies and filmed on location in Tiawan. If you love cooking and find the oriental mind fascinating, you'll love this movie. This is the story of three daughter's relationships with their father and their relationship with food and tradition. Wonderful soundtrack also.

Of food, family, & love.......2007-04-07

The opening scene of this movie is one of my favorites: it begins with the elaborate preparation for a traditional Chinese dinner that can consist of several courses...the accompanying music goes along really well with the flow of food preparation and cooking! That being said, the movie itself has food at its heart, it tells the story of a family of four. The father, Senior Master Chef Chu lives in a fairly large house with his three unmarried daughters [wife is deceased]:the eldest is a repressed Christian convert, Jia Jen who is resentful of her more liberal middle sibling, the middle daughter, Jia Chien, is a rebellious and strong-willed airline executive that is having problems with her love life, & the youngest Jia Ning is a student. All three see their father for their weekly Sunday lunch, more out of obligation than anything else, and the rest of the story deals with how the three daughters find a measure of independence away from the father, and how Master Chef Chu himself finds a measure of happiness in his own life.
In a sense, although the film has a modern context, the values are quite traditional, such as the weekly family dinner which many Chinese families still observe, the notion of filial piety, the practice of unmarried daughters living with their parent/s [still observed in many Asian countries]...and of course, the notion of food bringing families together.
I love the presentation of food in this movie...the dishes are lovingly prepared with consummate skill, and are mouthwatering delicacies worthy of drooling over! It is a movie to watch not just for the great cooking scenes, but also for the deeper themes of family dynamics, and of honoring your elders, whilst still maintaining your own identity.

Great but subtle........2007-01-16

A beautiful movie, with fantastic food scenes. Will make you want to buy a wok. Loses some of the nuances in Eastern family communication. A little hard to understand the cut and dry behavior. But well worth watching, especially if you like "Tortilla Soup" the remake with a Hispanic flavor.

If you are a foodie, you will love this movie........2006-10-19

The food scenes in this movie are eye candy for us foodies. I love cooking and I have never seen food displayed or prepared in a movie as it is in this one.
The story line is charming in its concept of how food relates to our lives and our relationships. The fact that this is a subtitled movie did not bother me at all, because the scenes with the food were so tremendous that I couldn't stop staring.
If you love food you will thoroughly enjoy this movie.

A Great Representation of Modern Chinese Family Culture.......2006-09-05

If you're willing to read subtitles this is an excellent foreign film, set in Taiwan, about the importance of and tight connection between a person's individual identity and his family life in Chinese society and culture. The work, interpersonal, 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 that person's life. Each of the 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, not 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.

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