 Paging Ang Lee, Your 1,000-year old duck is ready |
| Review Date: May 25, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Rev. E. Antonio Hernandez, |
It is surprising to see how little Ang Lee has done over the years. I'm a veteran admirer of his first films (TUI SHOU, "PUSHING HANDS" 1992; XI YAN, "THE WEDDING BANQUET", 1993; SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, 1995; THE ICE STORM, 1997; BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, 2005 and more). This, his third film directing and God knows where on the list of producer, is a gem.
Frankly I don't see the necessity for this film to have been remade, which it was, as the dreary TORTILLA SOUP--written and produced by Lee.
As I have reviewed few of these films (the wife's favorite is JOY LUCK CLUB 1993, mine is DIM SUM: A LITTLE BIT OF HEART 1985, both directed by Wayne Wang who is perhaps superior to Lee), I picked YIN SHI NAN NU, "EAT DRINK, MAN WOMAN" as my favorite to review. This, Lee's 1994 offering, is as classic and as classy as they get. Or ever would get again.
My perennial favorite from the old days, top actor and martial arts master Sihung Lung plays Mr. Chu, a widower and major chef. (Lung also played the great T'ai Ch'i Master Chu in the contempo-set PUSHING HANDS, a film, oddly enough, impossible to get at a sane price. See my review of it.)
Old Chu insists on regular Sunday dinners with his three adult daughters, Jia-Ning (Yu-Wei Wang), Jia-Chen (Chien-lien Wu) and Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang). A dear friend of theirs from childhood, Jin-Rong (Silvia Chang) gives this film an unexpected spice which I will not spoil.
By the way, if you are a fan of Wang's films and certainly if you've seen enough of Jackie Chan's stuff, you'll recognize every single actor here. Don't worry about names. They can give anyone a migraine--I always prefer to see the names in Chinese.
The girls are weary of their lives. One is a major airline exec, one is a high-ranking teacher and one a student or...something, I can't tell with her. The youngest is 20, so they are not exactly old maids, except in Chinese culture of course.
This is the story of a gentle but emotionally suppressed elderly man who can cook like no one, but can't talk to his girls. The girls are each out of whack by more than a few ts'un (a Chinese unit of measurement)--they can't even seem to talk to each other and it gets worse when two of them have a tiff over the same boy.
The film is a nice, meditative roller coaster. If that sounds funny, don't look at me: Ang Lee is the chef perfecting this dish! It smells as well as looks like pure Taiwanese culture, and this film makes me want to eat a horse every time I see it. There are bumps along the way, but in the end, everyone is happy. You might even shed a tear of joy for them all, as I first did. And, boy, does Old Mr. Chu shock the hell out of everyone at the end...and this will make you laugh til you're sore.
It is this wonderful new spice in the stew that I am not revealing. Get and cherish this fantastic offering of the best in Chinese film...and find out for yourself.
Now if only someone would sell me PUSHING HANDS at a reasonable cost!! |
Charming Lovely Film About Food and Love
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| Review Date: March 24, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Lynn Ellingwood, Webster, NY United States |
| This is one of Ang Lee's early films and I personally think many of them are better. In Taiwan, a widower with 3 daughters struggle with life and pending retirement by finding love. His daughters are looking for love themselves and everyone loves good cooking. A film about love and food that is a prize winning mini masterpiece. A very nice film. |
tortilla soup kicks this can to the curb
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| Review Date: March 6, 2010 |
| Reviewer: G. Walters, santa maria, ca usa |
| after having seen 'tortilla soup', i had to see the original; well, i should have stood in bed (as my gran used to say). this flick is V E R Y chinese: slow, detailed, beautiful, but lacking visceral punch. if you want a REALLY fun flick experience, watch 'tortilla soup'; if you want a cerebral exercise in chinese family dysfunction, watch this flick. |
The rare gourmet meal
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| Review Date: January 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Steve, Virginia |
I often chose to read what others thought of a movie before I write my own review, and I generally gravitate to the reviews that are contrary to my own because I want to know what perhaps I missed or willfully ignored the first time through. I loved Eat Drink Man Woman so I had to read some of the one and two star reviews to see why others disliked it so much. From what I've gathered, the negativity underscores larger issues I have with so much of the crap that comes out of Hollywood. That a movie as touching, heartfelt, and lovely as this is seen as boring to others proves my larger point; movies like Eat Drink Man Woman aren't made enough in America and when they do get made, they are often watered down adaptations of grander ideas, streamlined for the short attention span Hollywood has helped create. In other words; in the absence of Seth Rogan's on-going juvenile antics or Saw-like torture, what movie is truly worthwhile to the typical American movie-goer?
Sarcasm aside, there is so much to revel in here; mouthwatering food, the artistry of its preparation, the need to follow our truest calling, the mystery of love, the tempestuous and conflicting nature of family relations, and the universal scope of all of these issues. Ang Lee delivers a delicious feast of humanity that satisfied my hunger for movies that value artistic integrity over box office receipts. True to the food theme of this beautiful work, for every hundred fast food joints, spread like choking dandelions across the landscape, there blooms one lovely flower of a restaurant where the food is expertly prepared and where time slows to allow the splendor of the moment to envelope you and open your senses to the totality of the experience. Eat Drink Man Woman is such an experience.
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