Post by klep on Jun 1, 2020 7:42:59 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/1: Eat Drink Man Woman
ROMANCE WEEK!
Ang Lee's beloved Eat Drink Man Woman opens on an unhappy household. Chu (Sihung Lung) and his daughters have reached a point of cold détente. They gather for lavish family dinners on Sunday night, but merely tolerate each others' presence. Surely they must have been warm, open occasions once - the dedication Chu puts into preparing the meals can only come from love - but something has created a distance between them that seems hard to breach.
Ang Lee's film was made at the dawning of the Information Age, at a time when society in industrialized nations like Taiwan was starting to rapidly change. And it was this dynamic that Lee was seeking to explore in his film. Chu himself appears to be a very traditional man, rising with the dawn, working hard, and wanting his girl to be married. But each of his daughters is living in a way that differs from tradition. The eldest Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) has converted to Christianity and seems both committed to being single and discontentedly resigned to taking care of her father. Jia-Chien (Chien-Lien Wu) is a powerful and respected executive at an airline who focuses on her career and maintains a friends-with-benefits relationship rather than bothering with a more conventional boyfriend. And the youngest Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang) works at a Wendy's in sharp contrast with the fine cuisine her master chef father prepares. Much of the tension in the family comes from the distance between how each daughter wants to live and at least the perception they have of what the family wants from them.
It's at Chu's big Sunday dinners that the family shares significant developments in their lives, phrased as "announcements" and delivered with a hesitating air of formality - like they don't feel comfortable sharing themselves with the family they live with. But over the course of the film circumstances in each of their lives remind them what family is there for, and enable them to open back up. As much as it is a romance, Eat Drink Man Woman is a touching family drama about they way a true family always gives you a place and people to go back to.
Figuring most prominently of the three sisters is Jia-Chien, whose relationship with her Jia-Jen and Chu has been strained in different ways. She's particularly hurt by the way her father drove her out of the kitchens she loved to focus on her studies. At the beginning of the film she's put her life savings into an apartment under construction and is planning to move out, and gets excited at the prospect of a promotion that would send her to Amsterdam. But over the course of the film she's rocked by a number of revelations - the apartment building was a fraud, her beloved Uncle Wen (Jui Wang) dies, and she is given reason to suspect her father is in poor health - and they make her take stock of her life. When both of her sisters abruptly get married, she decides on her own to turn down the promotion to be there for her father.
Of course all her plans are for naught as her father hilariously announces at dinner that he's in perfect health and he and Jia-Jen's best friend Jin-Rong have fallen in love and will be marrying. Old Chu, it seems, is not so bound to tradition as his daughters may have feared. In the closing scenes, we see the family has all gone their separate ways (and Jia-Chien has accepted her promotion), but they're all happy and all talking to each other. And while Chu is the only one who joins Jia-Chen for dinner that Sunday, it's her who's doing the cooking - finally getting to work in her father's kitchen.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/8: Rebel Without a Cause
MOVIE STAR WEEK!
Some of the stars that shine brightest also, sadly, burn out too soon. Join us next week as we discuss one of the highlights of James Dean's too-brief career. Rebel Without a Cause is available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/2: The Haunting (1963)
Shirley Jackson is the focus of the next podcast pairing, starting with this adaptation of her work. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of The Haunting, available for rent in the usual places.
ROMANCE WEEK!
Ang Lee's beloved Eat Drink Man Woman opens on an unhappy household. Chu (Sihung Lung) and his daughters have reached a point of cold détente. They gather for lavish family dinners on Sunday night, but merely tolerate each others' presence. Surely they must have been warm, open occasions once - the dedication Chu puts into preparing the meals can only come from love - but something has created a distance between them that seems hard to breach.
Ang Lee's film was made at the dawning of the Information Age, at a time when society in industrialized nations like Taiwan was starting to rapidly change. And it was this dynamic that Lee was seeking to explore in his film. Chu himself appears to be a very traditional man, rising with the dawn, working hard, and wanting his girl to be married. But each of his daughters is living in a way that differs from tradition. The eldest Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) has converted to Christianity and seems both committed to being single and discontentedly resigned to taking care of her father. Jia-Chien (Chien-Lien Wu) is a powerful and respected executive at an airline who focuses on her career and maintains a friends-with-benefits relationship rather than bothering with a more conventional boyfriend. And the youngest Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang) works at a Wendy's in sharp contrast with the fine cuisine her master chef father prepares. Much of the tension in the family comes from the distance between how each daughter wants to live and at least the perception they have of what the family wants from them.
It's at Chu's big Sunday dinners that the family shares significant developments in their lives, phrased as "announcements" and delivered with a hesitating air of formality - like they don't feel comfortable sharing themselves with the family they live with. But over the course of the film circumstances in each of their lives remind them what family is there for, and enable them to open back up. As much as it is a romance, Eat Drink Man Woman is a touching family drama about they way a true family always gives you a place and people to go back to.
Figuring most prominently of the three sisters is Jia-Chien, whose relationship with her Jia-Jen and Chu has been strained in different ways. She's particularly hurt by the way her father drove her out of the kitchens she loved to focus on her studies. At the beginning of the film she's put her life savings into an apartment under construction and is planning to move out, and gets excited at the prospect of a promotion that would send her to Amsterdam. But over the course of the film she's rocked by a number of revelations - the apartment building was a fraud, her beloved Uncle Wen (Jui Wang) dies, and she is given reason to suspect her father is in poor health - and they make her take stock of her life. When both of her sisters abruptly get married, she decides on her own to turn down the promotion to be there for her father.
Of course all her plans are for naught as her father hilariously announces at dinner that he's in perfect health and he and Jia-Jen's best friend Jin-Rong have fallen in love and will be marrying. Old Chu, it seems, is not so bound to tradition as his daughters may have feared. In the closing scenes, we see the family has all gone their separate ways (and Jia-Chien has accepted her promotion), but they're all happy and all talking to each other. And while Chu is the only one who joins Jia-Chen for dinner that Sunday, it's her who's doing the cooking - finally getting to work in her father's kitchen.
MOVIE STAR WEEK!
Some of the stars that shine brightest also, sadly, burn out too soon. Join us next week as we discuss one of the highlights of James Dean's too-brief career. Rebel Without a Cause is available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/2: The Haunting (1963)
Shirley Jackson is the focus of the next podcast pairing, starting with this adaptation of her work. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of The Haunting, available for rent in the usual places.