Eat Drink Man Woman [DVD]

This film is a feast for the eyes and senses. It will have almost *all* viewers drooling with delight and desire as Mr. Chen prepares his ritual Sunday meal for his three grown daughters and occasionally a friend and neighbor. Mr. Chen is a widower, a retired chef from a famous Chinese restaurant in Taiwan. He continues this traditional family gathering as a way of communicating his love for his daughters. As a Chinese male and head of household, it is awkward for him to express his true feelings without a mother figure in the house. The problem is - his daughters are adults and each has her own unique identity. Each of them needs to grow in her own directon and express her own individuality - this is when the fun really begins, as one by one in the film, the viewer is privileged to learn about the daughters' lives. Little does Mr. Chen realize just how modern his obedient daughters are and just exactly what events are transpiring behind the scenes in their lives to which he is *not* privvy ... until ...one by one their lives are revealed to his surprise. However, what is really amazing is - Mr. Chen is more modern than his *own* daughters realize and he has a few tricks up his sleeve which catch them unaware as well!There are many wonderful themes explored in this complex film which to be fully appreciated should be viewed several times for maximum enjoyment. There is love, hope, survival, lonliness, friendship, death, betrayal, family values, and so much more. There is so much depth to this film that a lot can and likely will be missed, despite the fact it is a two hour film, it zooms by very fast. Mr. Chen's role is much deeper than one realizes, so the unfocused mind is overwhelmed by sensual data. Truly, several viewings will be needed and this is realized *only* after having viewed the film two or three times. The middle and most beautiful daughter is a company executive for an airline. She is highly successful and offered a promotion to become a Vice President for the firm but it involves moving to the Amsterdam office. She is a modern career woman and carrying on an affair with a free-spirited Chinese artist. Little does she know what tricks her boyfriend has in store for her while she plays the role of single successful woman. Her life seems the most on track and the film reveals just how much of an illusion this viewpoint is. The eldest daughter is more plain looking. She graduated with a college major in chemistry and teaches at a local boy's high school. She uses religion as an escape and became a Christian. She listens to Christian hymns even when waiting for the bus and traveling to and from work. Her "old maid" status is not lost on her teenaged male students who play a practical joke on her which went overboard and caused her great embarrassment. Amazingly enough, the new boy's volleyball coach greets the chemistry teacher and asks her to attend the team's games. He rides a motor cycle and is very cool. She does not know what to make of his overtures. It is when the students in her chemistry class play the practical joke on her that Chou Ming Dao, the coach comes to her rescue and a different kind of *chemistry* occurs between them. Something magical and unexpected develops. The oldest plain daughter engages in uncharacteristic behaviors but due to her Christian beliefs, she follows her heart as well as the tenets of her faith but the outcome is totally unpredictable. She shocks her family with her announcement at the Sunday traditional family meal ... The third daughter is the youngest. She works at fast food restaurant and unlike her older sisters shows no promise to become college educated. She has a best friend whose boyfriend keeps hanging around the restaurant. The friend indicates she is making her boyfriend suffer and she feigns not being interested in him, very convincingly so. The youngest daughter advises the young man on love and matters of the heart, to the point of his realizing *she* is a better catch than his original love. There are many unpredictable twists and turns in the plot as each daughter works out her life circumstances based on her own interests and values ...Meanwhile they are hoping that their dad will get together with Jin Rong's mother who returned to Taiwan after living in the USA. Jin Rong is a pretty young neighbor who is undergoing a divorce from her husband who cheated by having an affair. Her mother is returned to live with her and help raise Shan Shan her school aged daughter. Her mother could not get used to the culture shock of her other daughter having married outside the Chinese culture. It is quite clear, Jin Rong's mother has designs on Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen's daughters are encouraging these feelings. Mr. Chen pulls off one of the biggest unexpected and unpredictable surprise endings which truly makes this film one of the best I have viewed in a long time. This is a most highly recommended film. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

I love this movie. I first saw it on Netflix, it recommended this movie based on me giving The Joy Luck Club five stars (LOL), it was a completely different movie altogether though, but whatever, I am not going to give a comparison to the movies - it has nothing to do with this movie.I loved the movie so much when I saw it on Netflix that I bought it on Amazon. Anyway, the movie is entirely in Mandarian Chinese, with English subtitles. It was filmed in Taiwan. Some ramblings of another reviewer kept going on and on about Tortilla Soup - to that, I want to say this, that mediocre film Tortilla Soup was a remake of THIS movie! Just because you saw that movie first doesn't mean it was made first; this movie was made in 1994 (hello! you do the math!) - I just had to get that off my chest because I mean, really, when they remade it, they didn't even bother changing the script! Talk about plagiarism!Anyhoo, this is a great movie to show Chinese culture, for those of you who are curious - or who love movies (like me) of ethnic cultures (like Moonstruck, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Fiddler on the Roof, etc.). I loved the movie so much I didn't even care that I had to read the subtitles, it didn't take away from the brilliance of the movie at all... I think it was the fact that my mouth was watering so much!This is the BEST movie that shows Chinese culture via food - just so you know, the movie starts off with the father, a master chef in Taiwan, Mr. Chu, making the ritual Sunday family dinner. The five minute filming of the beginning of the film where it shows such a detailed cooking is so rich, and makes you sooo HUNGRY! I always get so hungry after this movie, and nothing ever satisfied my appetite unless I have authentic Chinese food (and I'm not talking about the take-out kind either).Anyway, this movie is not a drama - it's a light, family comedy; but not those stupid slapstick comedies like Will Ferrell or Jim Carrey does; it's a realistic comedy (think of a cooking show on the Food Network with a plot line).

I never write film reviews here but I had to for this. I saw this movie when I was a kid, and thought it was just ok. I crew up in a Chinese-American household watching my family cook big delicious meals, so I definitely liked all the cooking scenes as the sights and sounds were so familiar. Now that I'm around the age of the grown-up Chu daughters, I see this film in a whole new light and it makes me weep with nostalgia and homesickness for my family and our big Chinese family dinners. Now that my grandma (the best cook) is passed away and my parents are divorced, and I'm not very good at cooking Chinese food, I cry because we'll never have those dinners again. This film is almost like a time capsule of my own early memories. It's set in Taiwan but everyone can relate to it - career/workplace drama, romantic struggles, children growing up and having their own lives, etc. Each and every character is well-developed and completely lovable and the viewer definitely identifies with each one. I consider it less of a family drama and more of a slice-of-life story. There's no huge painful blowup, and the ending is quiet but happy without being sappy. It's also a food movie who's food prep scenes are as delicious as Julie and Julia, Ratatouille, etc.

I've watched this movie several times over the years and there aren't many movies that I'll watch multiple times. The story is really cute, and I could watch the father cook anytime. This is essentially XXX rated food porn!

This is a very funny comedy about a man with four daughters and their lives. The only thing I would say is make sure you watch with a delicious dinner because there is so much scrummy food in this you'll get hungry lol! :-) xx

This is a delighful study of a family, very funny and full of humanity.

Sorry for such a delay. Everything is more than OK with the seller and the movie itself :-) you have my honest recommendation :-)

I have seen this film in 1994, and really enjoyed it. I was pleased to find this DVD on Amazon to add to my collection. However, I wasn't aware of the different region in DVD format when I place my order. I am unable to view this region 1 DVD in UK. I sent it onto a contact in US to benefit the film. So I have learned my lesson that I need to check on the compatible DVD format before place the order. Given that I can't review the film as have seen it fresh, I go by my memory instead, and would recommend this film .Nevertheless I am authoritative to comment on my experience of the seller's delivery service. The delivery time scale was 2 weeks. I consider this to be good for order from US, delivery to UK. Taking into consideration that the postal cost is charged, rather than free, the delivery time scale could better, in my view. So I rate this 4 *.

Dieser Fim ist einer derer, die ich noch öfters anschauen werde.Schon die Eingangs-kochszenen sind ein Augenschmaus, wo wir tatsächlich öfters zurückgespulten, um die Szenen nochmals zu sehen.Danach entwickelt sich der Film zu einen einfühlsamen, in keiner Hinsicht irgendwo übertriebenen Film, wo die Charakteure brilliant dargestellt sind, die Problematik und das Thema des Filmes eindringlich, aber nicht übertrieben dargestellt sind. Keine Szene ist irgendwie langweilig.