Cinema
Eat Drink Man Woman
飲食男女
Ang Lee · 1994
Synopsis
Every Sunday in Taipei, Mr Chu, an ageing widowed master chef who has lost his sense of taste, prepares a feast for his three daughters, who still live with him: the eldest, a chemistry teacher converted to Christianity; the second, an ambitious airline executive; the youngest, a student working in a fast-food restaurant. At table, each in turn announces what she has decided about her life, and the father, who can only speak through cooking, says little about his own.
Context
The film closes the trilogy that Lee devoted to the authority of the father, and it is the only one of his films shot entirely in Taiwan. Its title comes from the Book of Rites, which lists food, drink and desire among the needs of man. The opening sequence, a Sunday meal prepared from start to finish, took more than a week to shoot, and a real chef doubled for the actor Sihung Lung. The screenplay was reworked in 2001 in Los Angeles, under the title Tortilla Soup.
Who it is for
A family comedy in subtitled Mandarin, accessible and mouth-watering; the dishes almost play a role.
Prizes and reception
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Golden Globe and the British Academy Awards, it was as much a popular success as a critical one.
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