Eat Drink Man Woman

Rating:
Summary: Why so many stars for this film is beyond me !
Review: I have just purchased this item from Amazon, but feel misled by those so many stars! The movie was boring, there were unnecessary parts, mostly long enough to make you fall a sleep on the couch...

The story telling is very poor, and there are gaps between scenes, missing details etc. Character structuring is also very weak. The story telling is also lacking emotions that you would want to expect form this movie.

If you are collecting chinese movies then go ahead and buy Eat Drink Man Woman but otherwise don't waste your money and time on this movie.

Not Recommended !

Rating:
Summary: Raising daughters is like cooking a meal.
Review: 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 ****

Rating:
Summary: Man and Woman Make Love Here Before They Eat and Drink
Review: 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.