Eat Drink Man Woman
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Eat.Drink.Man.Woman.
The movie, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, tells the story about a widowed father and Chinese master chef Chu and his three daughters. It explores the themes of family, tradition, and relationships.
The themes of family and tradition are highlighted throughout the movie by the reoccurrence of Sunday dinner. Mr. Chu prepares these elaborate dinners every Sunday for his three daughters. He puts these Sunday dinners together as an expression of his love for them because he has trouble communicating his feelings. The daughters seem to go to the dinners out of tradition, obligation and respect for their father. Throughout the movie all of the characters lead separate lives, but every Sunday they come together as one. Every dinner, a member of the family would have a life-altering announcement to make.
The family does not follow many traditions that go along with Chinese culture, such as the order in which the siblings should be married. The youngest daughter, Jia Vig, defies tradition by getting married first in the family, and also getting pregnant before marriage.
The movie also focused on the theme of relationships. These relationships between man and woman give meaning to life and are as important as eating and drinking. The eldest daughter broke the stereotype of being the old maid with the broken heart when she fell in love with the volleyball coach. At Sunday dinner, she announced that she married this coach because she could not wait to have intercourse with him. This showed a complete change in her character because she put herself before her family.
The middle daughter, Jia Chien, is a very successful corporate executive who put her career before everything. In the beginning of the movie, she wants to move out of the house so she can be independent and not have to take care of her father. She shows her horrible decision-making power when she makes a bad investment on an apartment without thinking it through. She also shows bad judgment when it comes to romantic relationships. She stays with an ex-boyfriend who does not treat her well and uses her physically. This is shown when Jia Chien tries talking about her problems but he does not listen to her. It is also shown when he tells her he is going to get married to another women. He then goes on to say, “I have two hours left until I have to go,” implying that there could still be a friends with benefits type of relationship. As soon as she realized that she was just the other woman, there was a complete change in her character and she just immersed herself in her family. She even put her father before her job when she turned down the job offer to Amsterdam.
The three daughters romantic relationships definitely challenged tradition and ethics. The youngest daughter did what a lot of people may say is ethically and morally wrong by having a relationship with her co-workers ex-boyfriend. Personally, I feel as though the