There are two kinds of movies: movies that progress with props and movies that progress with food…
Eat Drink Man Woman, a Chinese film is the second kind.
I believe that a good way of introducing this film is through a quote from the movie itself and that is “We communicate by eating.” Eat Drink Man Woman follows a family of four, a father and his three daughters, as they struggle with finding love. One message I got from this movie is that home cooked meals can heal a person as well as help them get closer to someone.
I’ll start with the characters. The father, Chef Chu, is a master chef and helps out at a large restaurant when they call him. His oldest daughter Jia-Jen is a teacher at a nearby school and is the only Christian in her family. Her family respects this fact and don’t bother her about it. Jia-Chien is the middle child and is a representative of an airline company. At the beginning she is planning to move out of their father’s house and into a set of apartments, but that plan is quickly ruined. Then, last but not least is Jia-Ning. Jia-Ning is twenty years old and is still in school herself. She has a part-time job at the American Wendy’s fast food restaurant.
As an important side note: Jia-Chien, Jia-Jen, and Jia-Ning all share the last name Chu. Chu is not Chef Chu’s first name, it is his family name. In China it’s a sign of respect to call someone by their last name and only people who are close to each other (like best friends, not co-workers) call each other by their “given name” (A.K.A First name…) For example: My Chinese name is Pan Ba-Li. My roommate would call me Ba-Li, but someone I talk to regularly at the bus station would call me Pan or Miss Pan.
Now that the introductions are finished, I won’t go through every detail in the movie, just enough to explain what I see as the most important food scene is in the movie. To begin with, in this movie I noticed a lot of the character development happens over a plate of food. Which to me gives the idea that the director was trying to portray that we are most vulnerable to the people we are interested in when sit down to have a good meal with them. Just a heads up, in China almost each time you sit down to eat, it will be a large, hearty meal.
The scene I am focusing on is actually the last one. Throughout the whole movie, Chef Chu has been dealing with getting old. He’s realizing that his body is not as young as it used to be, and more importantly he’s losing his taste buds. Also in the movie, you see through Jia-Chien the frustration and conflict she has with her dad. At this point in the film, everyone has gone their separate ways and the house the Chu family has lived in is being sold. Jia-Chien, the only one left, has decided to advance in her airplane business career, but in the meantime lives in their house. She is cooking a Sunday dinner in the kitchen that her father forbade her too cook in, but only her dad is able to attend and share this meal with her. They sit down and start with the soup Jia-Chien made. Chef Chu comments on how the soup has too much ginger, and Jia-Chien comments how it was her late mother’s recipe. Slowly the two come to the realization that he has regained his taste and the movie ends as they embrace this epiphany and also each other.
I think this scene is a way of showing how even though in the beginning the two weren’t close and there was a visible wall between them, they were able to overcome it all through the one thing that mattered greatly to the both of them: cooking. I also believe that this movie tells that cooking brings the most out of someone; that when they cook for more than just themselves, it is like they are placing their heart out onto the table for everyone to take in. This could also be an interpretation of the idea of cooking with your heart, or adding love to your cooking.
Anyway, I believe that this film did a good job at portraying characters that have daily struggles like family pressuring you to get married, or when life falls through because of gimmicks and fraud and you’re not sure where to turn next. The director tied everything together by surrounding the characters with food and presenting them with options of where their life could go next. One thing I think people should be cautious of when they watch foreign movies is the cultural difference. In China a couple that breaks up due to major differences stay apart while in America the couple is able to overcome their differences and have a happy ending.
This is one of my favorite Chinese movies and if you’re ever in the mood for a foreign film and food, I’d say this is a good one to take up!
I believe that a good way of introducing this film is through a quote from the movie itself and that is “We communicate by eating.” Eat Drink Man Woman follows a family of four, a father and his three daughters, as they struggle with finding love. One message I got from this movie is that home cooked meals can heal a person as well as help them get closer to someone.
I’ll start with the characters. The father, Chef Chu, is a master chef and helps out at a large restaurant when they call him. His oldest daughter Jia-Jen is a teacher at a nearby school and is the only Christian in her family. Her family respects this fact and don’t bother her about it. Jia-Chien is the middle child and is a representative of an airline company. At the beginning she is planning to move out of their father’s house and into a set of apartments, but that plan is quickly ruined. Then, last but not least is Jia-Ning. Jia-Ning is twenty years old and is still in school herself. She has a part-time job at the American Wendy’s fast food restaurant.
As an important side note: Jia-Chien, Jia-Jen, and Jia-Ning all share the last name Chu. Chu is not Chef Chu’s first name, it is his family name. In China it’s a sign of respect to call someone by their last name and only people who are close to each other (like best friends, not co-workers) call each other by their “given name” (A.K.A First name…) For example: My Chinese name is Pan Ba-Li. My roommate would call me Ba-Li, but someone I talk to regularly at the bus station would call me Pan or Miss Pan.
Now that the introductions are finished, I won’t go through every detail in the movie, just enough to explain what I see as the most important food scene is in the movie. To begin with, in this movie I noticed a lot of the character development happens over a plate of food. Which to me gives the idea that the director was trying to portray that we are most vulnerable to the people we are interested in when sit down to have a good meal with them. Just a heads up, in China almost each time you sit down to eat, it will be a large, hearty meal.
The scene I am focusing on is actually the last one. Throughout the whole movie, Chef Chu has been dealing with getting old. He’s realizing that his body is not as young as it used to be, and more importantly he’s losing his taste buds. Also in the movie, you see through Jia-Chien the frustration and conflict she has with her dad. At this point in the film, everyone has gone their separate ways and the house the Chu family has lived in is being sold. Jia-Chien, the only one left, has decided to advance in her airplane business career, but in the meantime lives in their house. She is cooking a Sunday dinner in the kitchen that her father forbade her too cook in, but only her dad is able to attend and share this meal with her. They sit down and start with the soup Jia-Chien made. Chef Chu comments on how the soup has too much ginger, and Jia-Chien comments how it was her late mother’s recipe. Slowly the two come to the realization that he has regained his taste and the movie ends as they embrace this epiphany and also each other.
I think this scene is a way of showing how even though in the beginning the two weren’t close and there was a visible wall between them, they were able to overcome it all through the one thing that mattered greatly to the both of them: cooking. I also believe that this movie tells that cooking brings the most out of someone; that when they cook for more than just themselves, it is like they are placing their heart out onto the table for everyone to take in. This could also be an interpretation of the idea of cooking with your heart, or adding love to your cooking.
Anyway, I believe that this film did a good job at portraying characters that have daily struggles like family pressuring you to get married, or when life falls through because of gimmicks and fraud and you’re not sure where to turn next. The director tied everything together by surrounding the characters with food and presenting them with options of where their life could go next. One thing I think people should be cautious of when they watch foreign movies is the cultural difference. In China a couple that breaks up due to major differences stay apart while in America the couple is able to overcome their differences and have a happy ending.
This is one of my favorite Chinese movies and if you’re ever in the mood for a foreign film and food, I’d say this is a good one to take up!