EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN - DVD review

Editor's Note: Don't get excited (or annoyed) that a new edition has just come out. It's been a tradition at DVD Town to welcome aboard new reviewers by having them write up a review of an older release for which we have no review on file. So a big DVD Town welcome to Sam Vicchrilli! We hope you enjoy his first review of many. JP

Ang Lee's Oscar-nominated third film bears the title "Eat Drink Man Woman," but a fitting alternative title might have been "Jia-Chien and Her Sisters" as it has much in common--love, family and food--with the Woody Allen picture.

The setting in "Eat Drink" is Taiwan, but it's certainly not the same Taiwan as master chef Chu's formative years. Chu (Sihung Lung) is at odds with the speedy, modern world around him. The film opens with him, lone parent to his three daughters, calmly and expertly preparing a meal--from live fish to cooking pot to serving bowl. The natural noise of the operation--a knife tapping against wood, steam escaping from a wok--is much more inviting than the images and sounds of traffic congestion that juxtapose this scene. Hordes of motorbikes and automobiles move out of frame, hurriedly traveling to nowhere.

The point of differing generations and attitudes is further driven home when we learn that Chu's youngest daughter Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang) works at an American fast food joint. Chu's food prepared with care, Jia-Ning's thrown together. One customer complains that he asked for chicken, waving around a floppy sandwich. "That is chicken," he is told, left to wonder what's really resting between those buns. The value of food, especially as a means of bringing people together (and observing prettily as they tear themselves apart) is a major idea and visual motif of the film, adding a welcome layer of depth to a picture that might otherwise be accused of being a dressed-up soap opera.

As we watch Jia-Ning and her two other sisters, Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) and Jia-Chien (Chien-lien Wu) prepare to end their day's activities to travel to their dad's, we get a sense of how different they are. Jia-Ning is pretty and playful; Jia-Jen quiet and pious; Jia-Chien a little more difficult to pin down, a bright businesswoman prone to promiscuity with the deepest mixed feelings about her father. Perhaps it is for this reason that she soon emerges as the protagonist of the picture, even though it is ostensibly an ensemble picture, with each actor playing his role well.

Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" is bookended by Thanksgiving dinners; Lee's film revolves around Sunday dinners at the family home where Chu, as all good cooks do, makes more food than could possibly be eaten, even at multiple sittings. Something each daughter has in common is that they eat at these dinners together out of a sense of duty to their dad, not out of desire. Even though they all live under his roof, it is clear each sibling is pulling in their own distinct direction, all of which lead away from Chu.

Though there are, for better or worse, similarities between Taiwanese and American cultures, here is one breaking point. American children are expected to be out of the house at 18; in Chu's household, daughters aged 20 to 30 are fearful of telling their dad they want to move on.

With its parameters of family and paramours in place, "Eat Drink" engages in a witty, thoughtful discussion of this family and the various ways its members approach love's labors. There is a great irony in their discovering how unfamiliar families can be. The love interest of Jia-Ning comes as a surprise; an accidental usurpation instigated by casual conversations with the jilted boyfriend of one of her co-workers. The co-worker pretends not to care for the young man, though she later claims she was just playing hard to get. Jia-Ning, with no pretensions or games to play, falls gently--and accidentally--in love. Jia-Jen, by virtue of her devotion to Christianity, acts content to have an ineffable boyfriend of sorts, but this position is put to the test when she meets the new volleyball coach the school where she teaches and begins to receive unsigned love letters.
Jia-Chien is a happy fornicator (no, really), but begins to be pressed about her future when several possibilities--romantic and otherwise--arise at once.

Like most movies, "Eat Drink" catches its characters on the verge of making important shifts and decisions in life. It is one of the distinct joys of this movie to not only wade through the situations its characters are put through, but also to reflect and ponder to how they relate to our own lives. "Is that all there is to life?" Chu asks of an old friend at one point in the movie, referring to the facts of life alluded to its title. Yes, is the film's ultimate answer, including the thorny but rewarding experience of self-discovery. But the ways in which those two pleasures (food and sex) are employed can contribute significantly when it comes to riding out and managing life's vicissitudes and surprises.

Lee, who would go on to make his next several pictures ("Sense and Sensibility," "The Ice Storm") in North America, revisits the crowded traffic scene near the end of the film with an important addition: a policewoman directing traffic. Life, of course, isn't so well regulated, though there are occasional markers by which each person measures him or herself in relation to their goals and values. "Eat Drink" is a celebration of this uncertainly and also the pleasurable moments. By definition the world is mundane, but there are a few moments--birth, death, marriage and other milestones--that serve to bring all our amassed days into meaningful focus. Even something as seemingly mundane as Sunday dinner at dad's house can, once it ceases to be a habitual duty, an appealing experience, as happens for this family. And like Chu, the aging cook, we learn to taste again.

"Eat Drink Man Woman" was re-made in 2001 by Spanish director Maria Ripoll as "Tortilla Soup."

Video:
The film was released on DVD in 2002 by MGM and the transfer maintains in anamorphic widescreen the 1.85:1 ratio of the film's original theatrical release. Colors are warm, but the overall picture is soft, especially when we've seen what sharp images later SD discs are capable of producing. But the transfer is free of dirt and manages decent contrast between darks and lights, especially the scenes in Jia-Chien's office.

Audio:
The Dolby Stereo Surround gets the job done, but is nothing to write home about. Dialogue is clear (though most folks will be reading instead of listening), and the film's music is well mixed.

Extras:
Bonus content is relatively meager - two trailers and an interview with director Ang Lee and co-writer James Schamus. Lee gives a lot of anecdotes about the film, including its thematic ideas and creation process. Lee also discusses his start in the film business. Easy to read, white subtitles with a black outline are available in English, French and Spanish.

Parting thoughts:
"Eat Drink Man Woman" is a perceptive and thoughtful film about family, food, romance and paving one's own way in the world. Though there are many soap operatic elements about it, it transcends these tendencies thanks to the sure direction of Ang Lee, the believability of the characters and the layers of metaphorical meaning the film serves up for digestion like a batch of Joy Luck Dragon Phoenix.