DVDs:

	Eat Drink Man Woman Sylvia Chang, Ah-Leh Gua MGM (Video & DVD), 2002 average customer review:based on 105 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A bit like a Chinese version of Woody Allen's "Hannah and her sisters", the film traverses through the lives of three sisters and their father. Lee manages to tell each character's story with care and humor. There are some hearty laughs, a number of touching dramatic moments, and towards the end even a couple of startling twists.

There are a handful of movies that employ cooking as a metaphor of life. But Lee doesn't stop there -- he uses the *preparation* of food as a motif of life's experience as a whole, to include friendship and familial devotion, as well as desire, passion and love. On occasion, food also represents a substitute to all that.

Ultimately, what makes a movie like this work is how much you care for its characters, each one wholesomely well-drawn and glibly multi-dimensional. With the possible exception of a family friend, who comes across as a bit cartooney, there are no caricature villains. Everyone is complex and human.

A terrific offering from China that I highly recommend. You may leave with a craving for some noodles soon after..

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DVD Review

Eat Drink Man Woman is a joyous film that celebrates family, love, and food. Sure to evoke smiles, laughs, and tears. The film is wonderfully entertaining as the lives of three sisters and their father go through changes due to unexpected events. Throughout we are treated to breathtaking photography that caress and studies the art of food perparation. The film is sure to make anyone hungry.

Video: (1:85) A great transfer from MGM, good sharpess and shadow detail.

Sound: Clean and clear, very good audio track.

Extras: Trailers and an interview with Ang and his co-writer. Do not watch the interview if you haven't seen the film, it gives away all the pleasant surprises in the film.

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Man and Woman Make Love Here Before They Eat and Drink

My title suggests that this film is hedonistic but nothing could be further from the case. This film is, to be sure, sensuous in every sense of the word but it explores family relations in a meaningful and believable way. I've seen this film more times than I can remember over the past decade, mostly with mainland Chinese students. Each time I view it I find something more to appreciate, which to me marks a great film experience. In my estimation, this is Lee Ang's finest film, far surpassing the better known "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in storyline and characterization. Yes, the traditional Chinese cooking is a feast for the eyes and indeed you may work up a healthy appetite if you view this film at the wrong time of the day. But there is far more than culinary delight to this film than many of the superficial reviews here would suggest. This is essentially a story about a father who is trying to find meaning in his life separate from his intimate family relationships (i.e. three rather willful daughters). In some sense, he is a kind of King Lear, but without the tragic baggage. A widower and retired gourmet chef, the father tries to keep his daughters near him by cooking a veritable emperor's banquet for them each Sunday. Although the daughters all live at home, they lead busy urban lives in Taipei and so the weekly ritual tends to crimp their style. Still, there is much "comfort food" here in both the dishes served and the words spoken. But don't get the impression that this film is maudlin in tone; it does not, in fact, take itself too seriously and there are ample moments of earthy Chinese humor (which translates rather well across cultures) and surprise leading to farce. The pace of the film is as rapid as the final meal preparations, in keeping with Chinese custom of serving everything quickly and as fresh as possible (no egg rolls here). For this we have fabulous film editing to thank and Lee Ang's gift for balancing action with dialogue, mood for mood. And far from being an artsy fartsy foreign film laden with self-conscious style, this film resonates with real characters fleshed out in real-life situations. A Taiwanese production, it avoids the stock characterization and outright stereotyping tediously depicted in most Western productions of East Asian culture. And I dare say at the risk of searching for the exotic, that this very male reviewer found most of the women in this film to be both lovely and graceful. You can enjoy this film immensely for its traditional elements and at the same time learn a lot about contemporary Chinese habits of thought, especially since its ending is anything but predictable. Indeed, it is the ending that many of my mainland Chinese students had to wrestle with, and perhaps you will too. All in all, one of the finest films of the past decade, foreign or not.

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Loved the cooking

This movie has the same story and is the basis for the film "Tortilla Soup." If you want to see the more accesible and entertaining of the two, see "Tortilla Soup" in which the Chinese culture is swapped for Hispanic-American culture. The culture differences and dry sense of humor in "Eat Drink Man Woman" kept me from identifying with the characters. It was still a wonderful movie and is worth watching for the cooking sequences alone. It was also interesting as a Chinese cultural study.


Raising daughters is like cooking a meal.

This is, above all, a story about love. It shows several different renditions of love and how it effects each of us. All of our characters in this story are in love or about to experience love and will each deal with it in their own way. Father Chu, one of our main characters, lost his wife many years ago, and has been handed the task of caring for his three girls. He has not had the proper guidance in how to bring them up, and he always put his cooking before them, so it comes as no surprise that these three girls have grown up as three individual women. Each carries their own passions and secrets in life. The eldest, Jia-Jen is a teacher that claims to have lost love a very long time ago and has never had the urge to rediscover it. The middle child, Jia-Chien is a very powerful airline executive that does wonders in the working environment, but is lost in the outside world (especially the world surrounding her family). Finally, there is the youngest, Jia-Ning, a student and fast food worker that wants what others have. Together, these four people make up a family, and Lee tells their story.

If you are new to Ang Lee films, it may be hard to watch this movie without enjoying the presence of a huge green man jumping mountains. For those veteran viewers of his work, this film will be seen as no surprise. This is a classic Ang Lee film. The themes of family, struggle, and love are dominant throughout all of his films. Eat Drink Man Woman is no exception. Lee does a fabulous job of crafting the boundaries of the family, providing the viewer with those awkwardly tense moments that make you feel that you are actually sitting there with the family as they air their "dirty laundry". By pulling us into this film and giving us some raw performances by the actors, you cannot help but somehow feel connected to this film. We have all experienced love (or even lust) at one point in our lives and understand the hardships that follow this joyous experience, especially if you grow up in a house similar to the one run by Father Chu. On an emotional level, this film works very well, but it is the other areas where this film does not succeed.

Pacing, inconsistency, and underdeveloped center are what hurt this film in the long run. Lee has built a structure with this film by creating a powerful beginning and a heart wrenching conclusion, but what lies in the middle is nothing but leftovers. Our main characters are inconsistent, jumping from one unsuspecting emotion to the next as they finally reach their one "true" moment. This is due in part by Lee's direction. When I first started this film, I felt that the story, camera, and direction were tight. It was flowing very well and my attention was focused directly on the film. About forty-five minutes in, I found my eyes wandering. I felt less connected with the characters as they stumbled through their lives and into love. Suddenly, it was as if Lee had awakened, and his style and power was reinstated for the last couple of scenes. This was my only complaint about this film. I needed more structure and development in the center so that I could fully enjoy the ending, but it never happened.

Overall, Lee did an average job with this film. He has pure talent, and it is seen in his later films, but in this one I just couldn't put my arms around the middle of this film. I would suggest at least one viewing if you are an Ang Lee fan, but definatly not worth a second.

Grade: ** ½ out of ****

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

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