main menu

Eat Drink Man Woman is a comedic look at the shifting family roles and relationships in the Taipei of the nineties. Despite the fact that retired Master Chef Chu has lost his taste buds (and thus the joy of eating), every Sunday he prepares an amazing---nay, artistic---feast for his three unmarried daughters who still live in at home. The dinner table soon becomes the center for the unfolding dramas and surprises which occur in the daily lives of the individual family members. Not only is this “food” movie gratifying to your senses, this comical film is also a moving examination of the universal family experience.

I have a pretty funny memory associated with this film. The first time I went to see it was with my roommate Susie Rigby (now Susie Larson) at BYU's International Cinema. For those of you who haven't seen it, there's a point in the film at which the youngest sibling reveals some extremely startling news at the dinner table. At that moment in the film, Susie was so surprised by what had happened that, as she turned her head to see what my reaction was, she accidentally spit all over me! (You know, that kind of really startled spit where you totally spray the other person.) She apologized profusely, but I just thought it was incredibly hilarious and laughed for a long time.