Eat Drink Man Woman

The final chapter in Ang Lee’s 'Father Knows Best' trilogy completes the director’s tenderly ironic chronicle of the compromise between tradition and modernity in Taiwan. A richly textured comedy about the tensions across two generations of a Confucian family, Eat Drink Man Woman typifies the filial focus of Lee’s early work.

Sihung Lung, the recurring father figure of Lee’s trilogy, plays Master Chu, a widowed chef renowned for his traditional Chinese cooking. Even though he has lost his sense of taste, Chu works tirelessly to prepare the elaborate banquets that bring his three unmarried daughters under the same roof. Each of the daughters is struggling to find love in a world that moves at a different pace to that of their father, and communication across the family is chiefly performed at the dinner table, with Chu’s culinary skills giving this emotionally authentic portrait of shifting values a warm and sensual touch. [Patrick Gamble]