THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
SOME MOVIES make you laugh. Some movies make you cry. With its steamy close-ups of mouth-watering Chinese delicacies, ``Eat Drink Man Woman'' will make you salivate.
Director Ang Lee proves that his observances of human nature, so evident in last year's big hit ``The Wedding Banquet,'' are no accident.
Here, using food as an obvious metaphor for that other universal urge, sex, he spins a likable and entertaining yarn about an elderly chef who is having trouble dealing with his three adult daughters.
Sihung Lung plays the most admired chef in the prosperous, modern city of Taipei. He's a legend at banquets, but his private life is boiling over. He's actually lost his taste buds.
On top of that, his three daughters don't communicate. The only time they get together is for his lavish Sunday banquet - an affair he demands they attend. They're so seeped in troubles, and non-communication, that they rarely enjoy the food.
Lee's ``The Wedding Banquet'' was arguably the most profitable movie of 1993, when you compare production costs to box office results.
With roots in both the East and the West, he is a director who mixes the mystique of the Asian storyteller with a modern, even hip, sensibility.
Lee uses the old-fashioned Sunday dinner to illustrate the a lack of family interaction. People talk about the food, about cleaning up, about anything except each other.
The chef is still mourning the death of his wife, even though we learn that the marriage was not always so sweet.
The younger daughter is an incurable romantic who dismays her father by working in a fast-food outlet. She has eyes for the boyfriend of a fellow worker.
The middle daughter, the beauty of the three, is a gung-ho business executive who works Sunday afternoons and is determined to get ahead. She meets a handsome fellow airline executive, but she's not in favor of commitment.
The eldest is a chemistry teacher painfully near old maid status. She bemoans a lost love, but the hunky volleyball coach keeps noticing her.
To complete the four plots, the elderly chef is noticed by a loud widow from America who has moved in next door. The daughters are put off because the widow has set her sights on their father.
It takes awhile to get to know these people, and director Lee is in no hurry. He demands that the audience settle down and be patient. As with a good meal, there is nothing rushed. Once you get to know them, you'll care.
``Eat Drink Man Woman'' is perhaps the lightest in the rash of food-oriented movies that has come along in recent years, from ``Babette's Feast'' to ``Like Water for Chocolate.''
The unexpected plot twists will delight viewers in the second half. Someone gets pregnant and moves out. Someone finds true love. Someone gets baptized. None is the person you'd expect.
Those who liked ``The Joy Luck Club'' will like this one, even though it is much simpler and much less melodramatic. The touch here is a gentle one.
``Eat Drink Man Woman'' is decidedly unpretentious, aiming merely to entertain. It succeeds nicely. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW
``Eat Drink Man Woman''
Cast: Sihung Lung, Ah-Leh Gua
Director: Ang Lee
Screenplay: Ang Lee, James Schamus, Hui-Ling Wang
MPAA rating: (Not rated but PG-13 would be appropriate)
Mal's rating: ***
Location: Naro in Norfolk
by CNB