Trust Ang Lee to take something close home, put it together and make a family drama that relates beyond borders and he will not disappoint you. Eat Drink Man Woman, (In Chinese Yǐn Shí Nán Nǚ) is the story of a father, who is a renowned chef and his three daughters.
Sihung Lung ('Sir Te' of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) plays a widowed chef, Chef Chu who is almost retired and losing his taste buds. Kuei-Mei Yang plays his eldest daughter, Jia-Jen Chu, who is a Chemistry teacher in a High School. Chien-Lien Wu plays, Jia-Chien Chu, his middle daughter, who is an independent woman working for a private airline company. Yu-Wen Wong plays Jia-Ning Chu, the youngest daughter, who is a student and has a part-time job at a fast food joint.
The family is almost dysfunctional and for various reasons, particularly the early death of their mother, they find it difficult to communicate with one another. Every Sunday the father prepares exquisite, lavish meal for the family, thus creating their tradition of a weekly Gourmet Gathering using food as a means of communication and revealing secrets about themselves.
The first five minutes of the film compels you to gaze at the screen, without being distracted as you watch Chef Chu prepare Chinese Cuisine so deliciously that your mouth begins to water.
As the name of the movie suggests, Eat (Food) Drink (Drinks) Man Woman (the relationship between a man and a woman), the story revolves around those topics. Only a man like Ang Lee can create something reasonably dramatic based on the basic human needs and clichéd family values without being so preachy and going overboard with it.
It is the beautifully crafted script and the ingenious direction that makes this movie stand out. The actors justify the characters they play with such convincing performances that even minor characters like the little girl, Shan-Shan and the chain-smoker, Mrs Liang makes it hard for you to forget them
The movie was released on August 3rd, 1994 and was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards 1995.
