Food is Love, Food is Life
With food, it is just as much about the journey as it is about the destination and this is highlighted throughout the course of the movie. The film succeeds in presenting Mr. Chu's intricate cooking as an expression of larger traditionalism and as an endangered art. The audience is graced with extensive scenes of the preparation of Chinese dishes, displaying the amount of effort and skill that are involved in the culinary arts.
The food preparation sequences serve as a metaphor for the skill required to transform bare existence into a rich life (and perhaps also as a metaphor for film making, where similar care and deftness are required)
Food is as much a backdrop as a recurring symbol in this film. Mr Chu's failing taste buds parallel his loss of zest for life. While he may be considered a great man in Taipei's culinary circles, at home, his relationships with his children are deteriorating. Although his daughters view the weekly Sunday dinners as bothersome and torturous, it is possibly clearer to the audience that Mr Chu does this not merely to uphold notions of tradition, but as a means of expressing his love for them. Indeed, it is unlikely that Mr Chu would undertake all that meticulous preparation for the regular feasts simply as a force of habit. Bound by the conventions of traditional Chinese culture, Mr Chu may not be able to directly convey his feelings to his family, but his attempts to do so through his cooking are apparent. At the end of the film, Mr Chu regains his sense of taste after drinking Jia-Chien’s soup. In line with the assumption of food as a metaphor, the return of this sensory experience could signify his renewed satisfaction with life upon rekindling his relationship with his daughter. Perhaps through the dishes that Jia-Chien prepared he understood her expression of love and endearment for him as well. This theme echoes the sentiments of chefs and culinary enthusiasts everywhere, that food is about more than just a physical sense of fullness. Also, it explores the possibility of there being more than one language of love.
"Cooking done with care is an act of love.” -Craig Claiborne
Communicating Across A Generation Gap
One of the reasons the Chu daughters dread the aforementioned Sunday dinners is because tensions run so high barely any eating is done. Much of the food on the table goes to waste, but the repast does succeed in one aspect: Each week, a member of the family speaks up with an unexpected revelation, beginning with Jia-Chien’s desire to move out and concluding with Mr Chu’s newfound romance with Jin-Rong. It is fitting that many of the meaningful events in the lives of the Chu family takes place at the dinner table, moreso because it is a unique way to reveal the plot. It was interesting to witness a family dynamic that was so fractured, their interactions had devolved to announcements at regularly scheduled meals. The problems with communicating did not exist only between Mr Chu and his daughters, but also between his daughters themselves.
The sisters barely have meaningful conversations outside of the dinners
Less Gender Roles, More Pizza Rolls
A major source of conflict between Mr Chu and Jia-Chien was his refusal to allow her to pursue a career as a chef, despite her showing promise in the field. Instead, she was urged to go to university, resulting in her subsequent career in the airline industry. Although it was later revealed that Mr Chu wanted a better life for his daughter than that of a chef, Jia-Chien assumed that his motivations were based in beliefs of traditional gender roles, that women did not make good chefs. Indeed, although women are traditionally expected to remain in the kitchen, the professional culinary industry is largely dominated by men. The film may be set in modern-day Taiwan which has seen the emancipation of women’s rights, but Jia-Chien’s assumptions reflect an internalized bias regarding conventional roles held by men and women. Ultimately, she takes over the role of chef for family dinners, which could be taken to mean either confirming to traditional gender roles, or liberation from them; playing the role of nurturing caregiver or demonstrating female culinary prowess.
The Coexistence of Modernization and Traditionalism
Much like the landscape of globalized nations today, the film is set in a Taiwan that embraces modern-liberalist views whilst holding on to time-honoured elements from the past. This can be seen in the way Mr Chu’s elaborate family dinners, the classic infrastructure of The Grand Hotel, and the Wendy’s outlet where Jia-Ning is employed all coexist. Another juxtaposition presents itself in the dichotomy of the rigid family dinners and the unconventional relationships each family member forms, such as Jia-Ning’s shotgun wedding. The revelation of Mr Chu and Jin-Rong’s relationship also presents a new facet to the already unorthodox family dynamic. Perhaps the one person who has found the balance between tradition and modernization is Jia-Chien, a corporate employee who also engages in the stereotypical act of cooking.
Final Thoughts
Eat Drink Man Woman is a delightfully complex film laced with humour and poignant moments that deal with the kinds of problems most people face during the course of their lives. Love also plays a part in the story, the many faces of which are explored within. With each character's separate story given room to play out, the movie enables the audience to be invested in the outcomes of their individual lives while discovering what it means to be a family. In addition to the refreshing cinematography, the cast is comprised of actors who artfully depict their roles, leaving not a single false moment to be found in their performances. These are all very real people in a very real setting, which enables the audience to identify and relate to the characters and their story, assuring that connection which makes this film such a satisfying experience. The deviation from the standard Hollywood type of storytelling is a welcome one; the tendency to emphasize drama whilst maintaining a light-hearted tone during other scenes is a characteristic of Asian films that differentiate it from their Hollywood counterparts. The film reminds us of the value of the intimate relationships which shape the human experience, but above all it gives you an appreciation and a craving for artfully prepared cuisine, so know that as you reach for the phone and dial for Chinese takeout, you are not alone.
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