Eat Drink Man Woman Analysis

Eat Drink Man Woman

Directed by: Ang Lee

Nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1995.

This film is about a semi retired master Chinese chef and his three unmarried daughters who have different issues in their lives, although all of them sit together for an elaborate dinner on every Sunday and discuss the developments happening in their lives. This film reminded me of Hannah and Her Sisters, Our Little Sister and such coming of age films where we can distinguish every character very well. This film also deals with the conflict between the traditional Asian culture values and the individualist Western values, which the younger generation is drifting towards. It has interesting food sequences, the opening titles sequence and whenever the dinner is being prepared. This film along with Ang Lee's first two films are unofficially known as the 'Father Knows Best Trilogy'. One of his daughters, wanted to cook and her father couldn't see her being successful in it or probably that she could get more respect elsewhere, it's such an Eastern thing where parents know better about what their kids should do for them to be happy. One thing I liked about this film is, it didn't take sides and it showed all the facets of certain themes without judging them. It's difficult to do that, especially when you feel strongly for something.

The editing, sound and cinematography don't call attention to themselves; they just blend within the storytelling. It felt like this could've actually been a show, not only this, all of these films which deal with individual lives of a group of siblings or friends, if the characters are fleshed out well, the writers should get a chance to explore more of their characters. It's tough enough to distinguish characters, to flesh out each of them in such a low runtime, is a challenge. Woody Allen's films do that very well and Kore-eda's Shoplifters was also a brilliant film which explored the lives of every family member and it didn't feel like we needed to know more.