Yin shi nan nu (Eat Drink Man Woman, 1994)

Yin shi nan nu (Eat Drink Man Woman, 1994) is a Taiwanese film directed by Ang Lee. It takes place in modern day Taipei, Taiwan, and tells the story of an aging master chef named Chu and his three beautiful and single daughters: Jia-Jen, Jia-Chien, and Jia-Ning. They have a warm bonding tradition of having a nice family dinner with each other every Sunday evening. Each of these characters has their own personal issue with love in their lives and their stories are shown and progress throughout the movie.

The elderly father, Chu, is alone after losing his wife long ago, who apparently was his one true love. He feels even more lonely when he realizes that all three of his daughters will eventually move out and be married sometime in the future. In his ripe, old age, though, he learns to deal with this in a peaceful and happy way.

Each of their daughters have their own personal problems with love as well. The oldest one is a school teacher who is coping with her own heartbreak. She had recently gone through a breakup with a close lover and is learning to deal with the heartache. The middle daughter is an ambitious woman with a good job as an executive for an airline company. Her problem with love is that she is unwilling to settle down with a man and very hesitant to committ to a long-term and serious relationship. And finally, the youngest daughter is a student who is curious about having a true love life.

Throughout the film, each of the daughters get involved with new boyfriends, who help them overcome their problems with love. They grow as people as the movie progresses, together as a family.

The most obvious theme in this movie, to me, was the purpose of intimate relationships. Suggested by the title of the movie, love is just as essential to life as is eating and drinking. I appreciate and am a strong advocate for this particular message of this film. Love is a wonderful and beautiful thing which trascends all boundaries. It something that everyone should have and experience everyday in their lives. It gives purpose to life itself and inspires and motivates individuals to live life to the fullest.

Another thing I found very interesting about the film is how they related the food they made each Sunday for dinner to the stories of the characters' love lives. Each meal was designed and cooked a certain way and was also presented in a way which related to the relationships each character was involved in. This was a very neat detail to observe and analyze throughout the movie.

Yin shi nan nu was a very heartwarming and pleasant movie for me to watch. It provided many humorous parts at which I actually found myself chuckling outloud by myself. I enjoyed it thoroughly from beginning to end.