Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat Drink Man Woman is a Taiwanese film directed by Ang Lee and distributed in the 1994.  Ang Lee, one of the well-known Chinese directors who famously known by his Hollywood sensational movie ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, has perfectly portrayed the concerns of conflicting familial relationships as well as a culture of suppressing one’s personal thoughts and feelings with extravagant traditional Chinese cuisine as a portrayal medium in this movie. The main two elements in this movie is the food and man-woman relationship.  Food as one of the essential element that keep us alive had been used in the movie as one of the symbol to portray family unity whereby all the family member will eat together every Sunday.  I think it is a brilliant idea of using this scene as it seems to be simple yet important medium to illustrate the most typical Asian family’s culture.  For example, my family also practice this culture that whenever we are having dinner together we need to wait for all the arrival of the family member before starting to have the meal.  As the Chinese New Year had just passed, it also did reminds me on the Chinese Reunion Dinner as all the family member will come back and sit together to have the meal together as the symbol of family unity. 

Summary

            ‘Eat Drink Man Woman’ (1994) tells a story of Lao Chu, autocratic single father of three daughters who is also a chef that has spent most of his time preparing and cooking incredible great-looking and mouth-watering food (even audience also feels the hunger and urge to consume those foods shown in the movie, I am one of them) in the big restaurant who has lost his sense of taste. Despite his loss, he is still a national treasure when it comes to Chinese traditional cuisine recipe and he relies most of food-testing part on his partner who is also his best friend, Wen to tell whether that dish he has made is mouth-watering or eye-watering.

He is persistent and firm of his Sunday-must-eat-together weekly dinner and insists his daughters to attend every week; however, the daughter perceived it as Sunday-torturing dinner.  In the movie, it portrayed that the purpose of having this Sunday dinner is to bring announcement.  At the beginning of this film, the daughter perceived family is not a happy place as there is some misunderstanding that happen between them and his father. There are generational conflicts between father and daughter as well as tension between sisters depicting difference of traditional expectations and desires of women seem to revolve around this family.  The main message of this movie that the director would want to pass to the audience is that the dinner table will always be the place where everyone can communicate, share their inner thoughts, and express themselves. 

Perceptions about the movie

The story portray the time settings in the early 90 where this is the period that Asian may still having the conservative mindset that when the girl reached the certain age and it is the time for them to get married.  This type of mindset can be trace back to the past when the past ancient time when the emperor dynasty still exists.  At that time, people may get married at the very young age and some may even become mother at the age of 16.  This may not have showed any big deal at that time as the role of a woman is to get married and to carry on one’s ancestral line.  However, people nowadays the role of woman had been twisted that they are no longer the child production machines and may be able to get education to get the same standard of equality as man do.  In the movie, the main character is the father who still have the old mindset that woman should get married when it is the time.  However, three daughters may not have the same thinking as the father had as they did believe in the faith that they will only get married when their Mr. Right has come.  This portrayed what current generation think about marriage as people nowadays are more heavily rely on faith as compared to the past. 

            Besides that, this movie also consistently showed some expected yet unexpected moments.  In the movie, audience tends to expect that there are some climaxes that the daughter may get married; however, the audience may not know guess the reason behind it on why they are getting married in the rush.  Not to forget the last part when the main character, Lao Chu had reveal his secret that he falls in love with his daughter’s friend and decided to get married with her.  It tells the audience that everything in the reality that there is always chance that we might get some unexpected events happen no matter how well that we have prepared for it.  It reminds people that we need to have the room for change as things may not go as what he had think about it. 

            Lastly, another main element in the movie is the man-woman relationship.  There are several kinds of relationship that are evolve around people in the world beside than sex as we known.  In the movie, it portrayed the father-daughter, siblings, sex, love, and friend relationship.  All this kind of relationship are basically the relationship that most of the people may experience it in their lifetimes.  People need to understand that whenever there is relationship, there will be conflict.  The most common conflict that people should have experienced will be the generational conflict where it usually happens between parents and children especially when the children are in teenage years when rebellion may take place.  This can be showed in the movie where the relationship between father and daughter are so tensed as both sides may not be able to understand one and another.  The misunderstanding and miscommunication may eventually become the factors that lead to conflict.  Generational conflict is common as the views of the parents and children may not be the same due to different social experience that they have faced.  I love the way this friction is portrayed in a sense that it is so real till it can be related to our social and familial environment as well. For example, l used to have some formed of conflict between my parents and me.  This happened when I was in my teenage years when my parents insist not to buy me a handheld device when it is so common in those day and everyone in the school has it except me.  There is once we had a big fight as I wanted it so badly till I even secretly bought it with the pocket money that I had saved up for quite a period of times; but, my parents had found out and decided to throw it away.  At that moment of times, I think that my parents are no longer in love of me and they are someone who are unreasonable as they did not provide any explanation.  This conflict has been unsolved and brought it forward till when I reached 18 years old where I received my first handphone.  Soon, I realized the reason behind it when my parents insist for not giving me a handphone when I was young.  This is one of the case that I have personally experience where miscommunication may develop into conflict and luckily it had resolved. 

Conclusion

            In a nut shell, this movie had portrayed a strong message on family relationship.  As what I had understanding family by definition means the first group of people, related by blood that have the first contact with us when we step onto this Earth.  I also do believe that family is not only being grounded by the blood related by also others like friend who can be as close as family members.  The average lifespan of human is about 75 years old, but we might not have the chance that we can spend every moment with the person that are significant to us.  In short, I think that we should appreciate all the years that we have left with not only family but also the person that we think had played a crucial role in our life.  As I believed that life is so fragile that anything can happen within a spilt second.  Hence, always cherish the moments that have spent together as for tomorrow, you may not have the chance to show your love to them anymore.