Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)

Original title

飲食男女

Directed by

Ang Lee

Genre

drama film, comedy film

Country

Taiwan, United States

Runtime

2h 03m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 409 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An aging master chef in Taipei lives with his three adult daughters, each dealing with their own romantic and career struggles. Their weekly Sunday dinners become a stage for unspoken tensions and surprising revelations about love and change.

warmbittersweetintimateleisurelyfamily-centeredpoignanttenderearthygentle

What happens

Eat Drink Man Woman (Chinese: 飲食男女) is a 1994 comedy-drama film directed by Ang Lee, from a script co-written with James Schamus and Hui-Ling Wang. It stars Sihung Lung, Wang Yu-wen, Wu Chien-lien, and Yang Kuei-mei as members of the Zhu family navigating the challenges of love, life, tradition and family. Part of Lee's "Father Knows Best" trilogy and similar to Lee's other works, this film deals with the transition from tradition to modernity. It is Lee's only film, to date, to be shot entirely in his native Taiwan. The film premiered in Taiwan on July 2, 1994, and it was both a critical and box office success. It received several accolades including an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It was also nominated for both a Golden Globe and BAFTA Award, as well as three Golden Horse Awards and six Independent Spirit Awards. It would inspire films like Tortilla Soup and Joyful Reunion and has an eponymous musical rendition. A BBC Culture poll of film critics ranked the film at number 54 of the 100 Greatest Non-English Language Films. The title is a quote from the Book of Rites, one of the Confucian classics, referring to the basic human desires and accepting them as natural. The beginning of the quote reads as follows: “The things which men greatly desire are comprehended in food and drink and sexual pleasure.” (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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