Yifei Du (Cathy)
09/30/14
WR100 Professor Kim
Paper2 Second Draft–“Communication & Love”
“Eat Drink Man Woman”, directed by Ang Lee, is a movie about family problems and generation conflicts. The leading role of the whole movie is a retired chef whose name is Mr. Chu. He has three daughters who have different personalities and hold different values about life and love. In this film, Mr. Chu uses food to maintain the harmony and stability of the family but he is disappointed every time because of receiving the shocking news at the dinner table. All daughters prefer to announce instead of communicating and negotiating, and I think that’s why they stay away from each other gradually. Love is also the center view since we see a lot of types of relationships in this movie. Some relationships are treated irrational, some are treated insipid and some are treated passionate, but each type of love has its own meaning and also is significant for developing the story.
Firstly, this film teaches us the importance of communication, especially in the family. In “Eat Drink Man Woman”, Mr. Chu believes that food can stimulate family bonding but every time when he and his three daughters sit and eat together, they are not trying to bond with each other, and that’s the reason why the food is always left over. They prefer announcement instead of communication. For example, his first daughter-Jiazhen announces that she has already married with Coach, his second daughter-Jiaqian announces that she is cheated and loses almost everything, and his youngest daughter-Jianing announces that she is pregnant so she has to leave home and starts her own life. Every daughter in this film leaves no space for consulting and negotiating. They just tell their final decisions to their family but never try to ask for their family any advice or help. Although they sit together, they think different things and never try to know each other. Lose of enough communication makes this family detached and disharmonious.
Secondly, “Eat Drink Man Woman” is developed by love and sex. Mr. Chu is not only a father but also a man, who needs love and sex. In the film, he has two relationships that should be mentioned. The first one is the love between he and his dead wife. This relationship is deep but lack of romance and enthusiasm. The first daughter-Jiazhen treats this relationship as the old blind date and the second daughter-Jiaqian thinks that they have no love since they always fight with each other. Although they get together not purely because they love each other, we see many scenes of the portrait of the dead wife, and it shows that Mr. Chu’ dead wife is meaningful to him. Because of the death of his wife, Mr. Chu does a lot of things that a mother should do. He is extremely responsible to his family and he bears a lot in the process. Although he is professional in the field of cooking, who is really needed by the restaurant, he is a tender guy in his family. How about the relationship between Mr. Chu and Jinrong? It is the true love with regardless of public opinion. He chooses to tell his daughters that he falls in love with Jinrong because he cares about them even the relationship is just about two people. But at the end of the story, he gets his taste back and tells everyone that he falls in love with Jinrong, everybody is shocked. He did everything for others, but no one cares about his feeling. I think it’s a kind of hope of the director-Ang Lee who wants to express that it’s time for the father to take off the burden and get what he desires. And their relationship tells us that love makes people crazy and encourages people to find freedom.
How about Jiazhen’s love? She is a typical woman who is entangled with the traditional thoughts. She is obstinate, sensitive and restrained. She is afraid to love and to be loved. She imagines a relationship that does not exist and she uses religious faith to anesthetize herself. But at the end of the film, she explodes in silence since she marries with Coach and leaves home at the first day when they confirm their relationship.
The second daughter-Jiaqian has a typical postmodern love in this film. She not only has the relationship with a guy who has family but also has an ambiguous relationship with her peer of work. She should be considered as the most dissolute woman in this story but if we can watch this film carefully, we will see that her inner bones still contain the feudal thoughts. She chooses to alienate his former boyfriend when she knows that he is going to be married and to alienate his co-worker when she thinks that he is her sister’s former boyfriend. She has no regard for the old and ordinary love but she finally gets a bleak ending because of irresponsibility. I think it’s a kind of criticism that Ang Lee wants to express, and that’s why he chooses the second daughter-Jiaqian to be the only one who accompanies with Mr. Chu.
Finally, let’s talk about the love of the third daughter. Although she is the youngest girl in this film, she is the earliest one who marries with someone and has a baby. It’s definitely the most impulsive love in “Eat Drink Man Woman.”
We see the important of communication and love in this film “Eat Drink Man Woman,” and I think every relationship is meaningful to both characters and audiences. Each love shows its distinguishing feature and every feature makes the film developed.