EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Sihung Lung, Chien-Lien Wu, Kuie-Mei Yang, Yu-Wen Wang, Ah-Leh Gua, Jui Wang, Winston Chao. Screenplay: Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus and Ang Lee. Director: Ang Lee.
Issues of quality aside, this is the best advice I can give to anyone considering seeing Ang Lee's EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN: do *not* see it on an empty stomach. Like 1992's LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN is a cinematic dream for those with a weakness for scrupulously prepared cuisines, and a nightmare for dieters. Also like that earlier film, it is about much more than recipes. EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN, like Lee's Oscar-nominated 1993 film THE WEDDING BANQUET, is a story of generational conflict, a witty and emotionally involving tale in which food plays a pivotal role in observations on a changing Chinese culture.
EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN is the story of the Chus, a family living in modern Taipei. Old Chu (Sihung Lung) is a widowed master chef sharing his home with three grown daughters. Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) is a repressed schoolteacher who is a Christian convert; Jia-Chien (Chien-Lien Wu) is an executive for a Taiwanese airline; Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang) is a student who works in a fast food restaurant. All three humor their father's elaborate Sunday dinners, but each has desires conflicting with Old Chu's world. Eventually all of them find themselves entangled in complicated romances, including Old Chu himself, who is pursued by a garrulous old family friend (Ah-Leh Gua). The playing out of these relationships leads to a confrontation with family tensions.
The title of EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN comes from a Chinese proverb dealing with the basic necessities for continuing life, but it is used ironically by Old Chu to note how even the simplest things have become complicated. From the opening shots of a swarm of scooters crossing a busy intersection juxtaposed with Chu's traditional cooking, EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN becomes an examination of a modern world clashing with an ancient culture. Each of Chu's daughters represents a merging of cultures: Jia-Jen's religion brings Christianity into the mix; Jia-Chien's airline is in the process of acquiring routes into new countries; Jia-Ning's job at a Wendy's (where the customers can't always tell what they're eating) mocks Chu's life work. Chu copes by maintaining a silent distance, yet as he notes other cultures seeping into his own, he begins to lose the one thing that allows him to preserve a pure culture, the ability to taste his food. "We communicate through food," notes Jia-Chien at one dinner, and with a breakdown in the ability of the traditional cuisine to bridge the generations comes a total failure of communication. It's rich thematic ground, and Ang Lee does a fantastic job of finding influences, particularly American influences, everywhere (particularly a humorously mis-named stuffed purple dinosaur called "Harvey").
EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN also explores romantic relationships in this context of generational change, and there it is less consistently successful. Each of the four main characters is given a subplot, and like Old Chu's dinners the film begins to seem like there is a bit too much to consume in one sitting. The youngest daughter's story is particularly weak, and the film might have been more effective if her character had been dropped entirely. Otherwise, solid acting makes for some affecting stories. Sihung Lung, so good as the father in THE WEDDING BANQUET, is again taciturn without being one-note, and provides a solid anchor for the film. The best story belongs to Kuei-Mei Yang's Jia-Jen, and she does a magnificent job of playing all of Jia-Jen's buried emotions at just the right level. Also noteworthy are two delightful supporting performances: Ah-Leh Gua (Lung's wife in WEDDING BANQUET) as the non-stop Mrs. Liang, and Jui Wang as Old Wen, Chu's best friend and fellow chef.
I was not a huge fan of THE WEDDING BANQUET; I felt it was inconsistently paced, and that its weak lead performances hindered its emotional pull. Here, however, Ang Lee has put all the pieces together. Though it runs a bit long, EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN is a warm and keenly observed character piece, filled with mostly exceptional performances. See it as it makes its way to your town. After a large meal, naturally.
On the Renshaw scale of a 0 to 10 course meal: 8.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews