March 26, 2007

• Eat Drink Man Woman

                                                                      HT: Sweetbriar Patch    
  
  Eat Drink Man Woman directed by Ang Lee, the director of Sense and Sensibility, is a foreign film about family and food set in Taiwan.  The opening scenes are sumptious shots of food preparation.  

  Mr. Chu, a senior chef, fixes an abundant feast each Sunday for his three grown daughters.  There is no connectedness between them and the weekly meal is a hodge-podge of clipped communication, random announcements, and dutiful picking at the food.  The daughters dread the “Sunday torture” as they call it and we all mourn the wasted opportunity, the wasted effort of Mr. Chu, the senseless charade.  The girls want to break away, seeking a romantic liason to provide their ticket out of the family.  

  Even Mr. Chu realizes that life is adrift:  ”Eat, drink, man, woman. Basic human desires. Can’t avoid them. All my
  life, that’s all I’ve ever done. It pisses me off. Is that all there is
  to life?”   As the family structure changes, we learn more about each one’s relationship to food and eating.  I anticipated the movie ending with a final feast of reconciled relationships.  It does end with a small feast, a poignant inversion of the opening scene.

  I’m quite taken with foreign films, especially ones set in modern
  times.  They offer slices of daily life in the local culture.  The
  opening sequence begins with motorcycles roaring down a highway and
  pans to the quiet serenity of the kitchen, with its small, satisfying sounds of a knife on wood.  The home is a quiet sanctuary from the bustling, urban milieu outside. An interesting twist in the culture of Taiwan is the role of Christianity in the life of the eldest daughter. She prays aloud before each feast while her family waits, tolerant, indifferent and silent.  

  As I babbled on to Curt about this movie, he asked the best question (he excels at good questions):  What would this film be like if it were redeemed?   I pondered and experienced a brief moment of clarity: the food stuff was exquisite.  It inspired me to take more care with my meals, menus and presentations.  But it was not done for the glory of God.  The most delicious food, prepared with love, presented in glorious array is not enough.

  It was strange to be processing my thoughts about this movie I watched on Saturday as we enjoyed a four-generation family feast at my son’s house on Sunday.  The smells of garlic and salmon wafted through the house as we talked, lingered, and then gathered around the table.  That there was no occasion to celebrate gave an even richer significance to the evening.   
     

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