Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman is one piece from Ang Lee’s “family trilogy”. Ang Lee is a famous director from Taiwan who has won many international awards. He is famous for Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution. Both of his movies receive lots of criticism, but it also wins him great fame. I think they are all probably banned in China mainland. When these movies came out, they occupied the front page of ever newspaper, and that’s where I know the name Ang Lee.

The movie tells the story of an old chef Chu who is beginning to face the embarrassment of life after retirement. The big get-together dinner he cooks every weekend can no longer attract his three daughters. They have all grown up, and there are things for them more important than eating with their dad. The death of his old friend is big shock for Chu and takes him long to recover. Though his three daughters are very busy, they care about Chu’s later years in life. When they are planning to find Chu a new love, they are all rocked by the news that Chu is actually in love with Jinrong who is considered as the “forth daughter” in their family.

This is the first movie I saw which is directed by Ang Lee. I think it’s a good one. He shows us that he is not ordinary by using hints, symbolism and other movie making techniques in the film. You have to think when watching in order to get a better understanding of the theme. The story mainly focused on food which is important for every culture and especially important for Chinese. As a country with a history of thousands of years, Chinese culture can be largely represented by its food culture. The food diversifies from place to place. Almost every province has its own eating habits. The diversity increases by distance. For example, people in the north eat bread (steam bread) and wheat, and people in the south seldom eat any steam bread at all. Their staple is mainly rice. What’s more, in western part of China people eat extremely spicy food, but, on the east side, people prefer mild. Climate differences also contribute to food diversifications. The old generation in Taiwan is mostly from the main land. I think their food is more similar to Guang Dong food judging from what they eat in the movie.

Chinese food is also very popular in America. Many times, people ask me whether the food here still taste Chinese. To be honest, the answer is a big negative no. Chinese food in America has been greatly affected by American fast food culture. In order to survive in business, the food making procedure is greatly changed and so does the flavor. In fact, cooking Chinese food is very time consuming. It probably takes me an hour to cook one dish and I know there are some that may require half a day. It gives me a good reason for eating outside!!