The Great Movies: Eat Drink Man Woman
There is a poetry in fine cuisine, the long hours preparing lavish courses that becomes a feast not merely to the stomach, but to the eyes and nose as well. The same can be said about raising a family or tending a job or even finding religion. Eat Drink Man Woman is an appropriate title for a film that not only understands the joys and pitfalls of family life, growing old, and understanding your place in the world, but also understands food, which thankfully doesn't play the metaphor, but the source that binds people together.
The first scenes set up a magnificent feast that Chu (Sihung Lung) is preparing for the usual Sunday dinner he has with his three daughters. He has been widowed early and now his daughters are fully-grown. The oldest (Chien-lien Wu), has discovered Christianity and hasn't put much effort in trying to find a husband. The middle daughter (Yu-Wen Wang) is a business wiz whose real passion is in cooking, which she has to do outside her house. And the youngest (Kuei-Mei Yang) is an employee of the local Wendy's (which I'm pretty sure irks her father quite a bit). When they sit, they barely eat, preferring to throw jabs at each other over the meal. "Our family communicates with food,” one of the daughters proclaims, which isn't too far from the truth. Since Chu really doesn't know much more than cooking, which he a master of, the Sunday meal is his way of saying "I love you", which his daughters aren't really understanding.
When it comes time for the girls to start leaving to lead their own lives, the start to understand who they are. Their father's health is starting to slip, as is his taste buds, which is probably more important to him. Who will stay behind to take care of him? A major promotion starts looming over one of the daughters that will take her to Amsterdam. Romantic interludes are starting to ignite between the other two. And what does he want? There's hints of a romance, but to whom?
Impeccably, this film could have used all kinds of metaphors and goes above using them. Instead, it reaches into these characters and allow them to feel with genuine sincerity and to live with lives that are filled with joy, sadness, anguish, fear, and above all, hope. It plays in territories that would feel comfortable in Jane Austen (which director Ang Lee will eventually direct Sense and Sensibility) with the same quirky characters and developments. Take a scene where Chu, disgusted with what a friend's little girl is eating at school, he fixes her fine lunches that she shares with her classmates (eventually to the point of taking orders). Or even a scene where the entire family is at the table one last time where Chu drops the mother of all bombshells on his unexpecting guests (but is it really that much of a surprise? The film isn't trying to be cute about its surprises like many films today market around that crackerjack surprise.
I think that most of the acting credit should go to Sihung Lung as Chu as a man on the verge of closing perhaps the last great chapter of his life and beginning a completely new one. The way he under acts around his daughters shows how precise an actor he is, and allows Chu to be funny without being a running gag. Take the scene where he has a wad of bras in his hands as he's doing laundry. Yu-Wen Wang's performance as the most beloved of daughters also hinders on her ability to play off her co-stars, especially Lung. Their scenes together are very touching; especially the last one where we see the ladle being passed down and a final argument of just how much ginger should be used in your soup.
For Ang Lee, this is not only a milestone in his directorial career, but a beacon of the classic human dramas he will become known for. The film has a classic look, a classic feel, and a classic heart for family dynamics. On top of that, he films the creation of food with such zeal and color. Throughout half of the film I was salivating even though I had just finished eating dinner.
This film is a must-see, if for anything because it makes you leave your living room with a smile on your face...and perhaps even a full stomach.