Eminent Themes Explored in the Movie, "Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)"

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MOVIE REVIEW
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) is a film that was directed and written by Ang Lee. During the 1980s and 1990s, the best writers could reach the audience was through food. The main character of this film was Mr. Chu an aging master chef who was losing his sense of taste but was still able to prepare dinners for his three grown daughters and friends. The film recommends that family relationships in modern Taiwan should be comparable to the idea of Jia-Chien about food. In this film, Lee tells the narrative of the adjusting family dynamics in Taipei, Taiwan during a period of hasty modernization by employing a universal medium which is food. Through Chef Chu who lost his intellect of taste and his three grown daughters, this film es various themes among them gender roles, globalization, modernization and tradition, generational gap, and family.
Gender roles is an example of an outstanding theme in this film. Eat Drink Man Woman is film shows the role of women in society and the world of food. Earlier, men were considered as very powerful for example the case of Chef Chu. For example at the Grand Hotel, Chef Chu is summoned one evening to assist the male chefs to rectify their dishes which were to be served on an important occasion. Mr. Chu was a lonely widower who did laundry for his daughters while they were Chef Chu is a bit complicated in the film. His three daughters do not recognize his authority in the house. Chef Chu is the only remaining parents and he acts as father and mother to his three daughters. He does feminine duties like feeding them and waking them in the morning. Throughout the film, Chef Chu is seen preparing dinners for his three daughters who eat the food with impertinence and irritability. This film shows why it is very important for women to re-learn their roles and place in society (Dilley, 2015). The opening scene of the film showing the father preparing Sunday dinner for his daughters illustrates that the father was the only individual who had his life straight. The film revolves around a male figure in the family. However, the authority of Chef Chu over his middle daughter Jia Chief aspired her to be a master chef just like her father. Mr. Chu encourages her to attend the university instead of taking a culinary career. However, Jia-Chien assumes that her father asked her to approach that path based on his conventional view that women cannot do well in cooking but later it proves not to be the case. A family friend later reveals to Jia-Chien that her father needed her to have a better life away from the kitchen. However, Jia-Chien returns to the kitchen and it is through her cooking that her father regained his sense of taste. This scene promotes feminist views and the cooking of Jia-Chien can be interpreted as the endowment of feminine nourishment.
Another theme that has been explored in this film is the theme of family. Although Chef Chu is not able to communicate with his daughters in this film, through food, Mr. Chu can connect with his three daughters. Mr. Chu cares for his daughters such that he prepares lunch so that he can elaborate to Jia-Chien her grade at school. This nourishes her emotionally and physically. Mr. Chu also prepares special noontime meals. These meals are similar to obento meals because they assist children in making their transitions that is from home to school. Chef Chu is a single parent who cares for his daughters so much. However, even though Chef Chu is committed to making his family whole and unified, his middle daughter Jia-Chien has no time for her family. Jia-Chien does everything possible to escape from them. She even starts a close working relationship with a colleague. Her relationship with Chef Chu is very difficult. Jia-Jen who is the oldest daughter of Chu is responsible for her family and her father. Jia-Jen acts as a mother to her two sisters and makes a lot of sacrifices for her family. Chu wanted her daughters to have a better life than his and that is why he recommends that Jia-Chien should join the university instead of practicing culinary arts (Dilley, 2015). The decision of Chu is what ruins his relationship with his middle daughter. In this film, food is a habitual symbol. Chef Chu is regarded as a great man in culinary circles in Taipei, but not at home where his relationship with his daughters is deteriorating every day. He operates on a cool and resilient level so that he can be able to deal with his daughters. The flavorful food prepared by Chu is an expression of his love for his family.
Modernity and tradition is another eminent theme in this film. This theme is demonstrated through the act of cooking. Chef Chu is a master chef who uses traditional methods to prepare his food. He uses culinary methods. For example in the second scene of the film, Chef Chie is seen preparing a traditional family Sunday dinner banquet. Another instance that demonstrates Chef Chu was using traditional methods to cook is when he catches and descales a fish with his bare hands for the upcoming feast. Additionally, Lee illustrates the entry of Chu with the use of traditional Chinese instrumental music. This reinforces the theme of tradition and modernization. The music assists in establishing Chu as a representative of tradition. Other scenes that depict tradition is Chu boiling frogs, slaughtering chickens, and cutting fish into fillets. The film also illustrates modernity by contrasting the movement of the city and the calmness of Chu’s household (Dilley, 2015). This shows the struggles of modernity. The urban traffic lights are used to depict the idea that times mo...