7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
Widower Tao Chu, Taiwan's most famous chef, struggles with accepting his three daughters' newfound appetite for boys, an interest that begins to break the family apart with hilarious and often touching results.
Starring: Sihung Lung, Chien-lien Wu, Yu-Wen Wang, Kuei-Mei Yang, Sylvia ChangForeign | 100% |
Drama | 30% |
Romance | 21% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Despite their obvious differences in timeframe and culture, Tevye, the iconic milkman in Fiddler on the Roof, could have possibly given some sage advice to another father addled by changes in society, morés and the vagaries of romantically inclined daughters, the paterfamilias at the center of Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman. Tevye of course bargained with both God and his family as he saw one daughter after another fall in love unexpectedly, finally coming to terms (more or less, anyway) with the fact that (as a certain Robert Zimmerman once opined), “the times, they are a-changin’.” Unlike Tevye, Eat Drink Man Woman’s harried father, Mr. Chu (Sihung Lung), doesn’t have a “Golde” to help him deal with his daughters. Mr. Chu has been a widower for some time as the film begins, and he has learned to fill his days with the one thing that he can ostensibly control—his own cooking. Mr. Chu in fact has become something of a celebrated chef, and he delights (in theory if not in practice) in creating huge weekly banquets to which his less than adulatory daughters are invited. The dialectic between tradition and the contemporary loosening of long defined strictures provides the potent subtext for Eat Drink Man Woman in much the same way it does in Fiddler on the Roof, but Eat Drink Man Woman tends to wallow a bit more in its family dysfunction, unable to set aside differences (if only temporarily) with a song and dance routine. This was one of the early trilogy of films, along with Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet, that first brought writer-director Ang Lee to international prominence. While this trio is often linked together courtesy of shared thematic elements and the fact that Sihung Lung starred in all three, Eat Drink Man Woman is in essence a standalone property, one that doesn’t rely on any extracurricular content or even context to make its simple but profound points.
Eat Drink Man Woman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. Lee and cinematographer Lin Jon favor a naturalistic look, and the elements utilized for this transfer offer a nicely saturated, realistic looking palette that has suffered little if any fade over the years. Close-ups of the many foodstuffs displayed throughout the proceedings feature commendable detail (to the point that some of Mr. Chu's preparations of animals and/or fish may be a bit squirm worthy for some). Contrast is good, though black levels are just a tad milky at times. Sharpness and clarity are excellent, even in some showy sequences where, for example, Lee chases after Mr. Chu with a handheld camera through the labyrinthine halls and alleyways of the hotel where he's a chef. There are no issues with image instability and as is Olive's custom, there are no signs of excessive (or even minimal) digital intrusion into or tweaking of the image harvest. Grain is very natural looking and resolves organically throughout the presentation.
Eat Drink Man Woman features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that suffices perfectly well for what is in essence a fairly unambitious soundtrack. Dialogue, sometimes busy ambient environmental effects (courtesy of the urban landscape) and score are all presented very cleanly and clearly, with excellent prioritization and fidelity. Forced English subtitles are in a bright, easy to read yellow font.
There are no supplements on this Blu-ray disc.
Less Baroque than some of Lee's later efforts, Eat Drink Man Woman is undeniably simple, but it's also surprisingly profound at times. Performances are largely wonderful (with occasional tips into cartoonish territory), and Lee captures the hustle and bustle of a changing cultural landscape quite convincingly. There's a sweetness to Eat Drink Man Woman that audiences, if not Mr. Chu himself, should be able to taste. Technical merits are generally strong and despite this Blu-ray not offering any supplements Eat Drink Man Woman comes Recommended.
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