Before the fantastical "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), director Ang Lee's films centered around some finer, delicate, more delectable themes.
"Eat Drink Man Woman" (1994) — whose screening was recently part of the ongoing Taiwanese American Student Association (TASA) film festival — uses over 100 different recipes throughout the film, appearing something like the Food Channel with personage:
Steamed chicken with black mushrooms, minced shrimp in lettuce, stir-fried Taiwanese clams — are braised, boiled and pan-fried by chef Chu. Grand scale servings of lotus flower soup, chicken wrapped in clay, an entire Peking duck — are not for a restaurant or large gathering but a regular Sunday dinner for Chu and his three grown daughters.
At their habitual, flush feast, however, something is amiss. The girls nibble with indifference to their father's exquisite cuisine, heedless of his slaved preparations. Disquieted references to the family's deceased wife and mother, bear further suffering throughout this ritual. Eventually, Chu's own apathy for food becomes apparent, as we learn that he has, sadly, lost his ability to taste.
So, food is a metaphor for these characters' lives, the figuratively inclined viewer is apt to deduce. Probably. But humor adds salty 'spice' to this otherwise traditional table.
As weeks progress, Chu's Sunday table becomes an unexpected forum for shocking pronouncements and family fiascoes. Surprise marriage proposals, dramatic deaths, religious upheavals, and confused love triangles name just a few.
Chu himself begins to progress towards dynamism that we would not expect from his portrayal as a traditional father, and chef. He discovers new audiences and generations who can appreciate his cooking, acceptance in some of the familial aberrations (one of his daughters works at a Wendy's fast food restaurant) — and perhaps a newfound romance of his own.
Like other films sponsored by TASA, "Eat Drink" offers English captions with the original Chinese Mandarin (it earned a 1995 Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film). It is easy to stray from reading; foregoing the subtitles and ignoring the action to fixate instead upon Uncle Chu's command of cutlery — or the film's sundry scenes of Taipei. Aesthetics often upstaged the story — like a true 'Garden Theater'-variety film.
"Eat Drink Man Woman" is part of an ongoing film festival, cosponsored by TASA amd the Taiwanese American Association of New Jersey (TAANJ) as well the Chinese Graduate Student Association (CGSA). Several graduate students from Taiwan first developed the idea to offer such a festival. Officially, these students operate under CGSA, though they make this Taiwanese distinction to avoid any confusion that a "Chinese" label might cause.
"The festival introduces the audience to the multifaceted life in Taiwan through the eyes of award winning directors including Ang Lee, Hsiao-Hsien Hou and Edward Yang," the CSGA president, Chang-Hong Lin, wrote in an email.
"The viewers hop on board a time train that takes them to the 1940s, where ethnic conflicts abound, to the late 1990s, where lonely urbanites seek the meaning of life and embark on a quest for love," he said.
"Eat Drink" followed "A City of Sadness" (Oct. 2) and "A Bright Summer Day" (Oct. 9). If you haven't noticed the flyers and advertisements around campus thus far, it's not too late to catch the second half of the festival, starting today.
"Vive l'Amour" (Nov. 6) is directed by Ming-Liang Tsai, and presents an estranged view of urban life — again, in Taipei, Taiwan. "Legend of the Sacred Stone" (Nov. 13) is produced by PiLi.com, and is an extremely unique, 96-minutes of Taiwanese puppeteers enacting action-packed plots using Chinese "glove puppets."
Finally, on Nov. 20, "The Personals" rounds out the TASA festival. Directed by Kuo-Fu Chen, the film deals with an attractive eye doctor who, still trying to initiate relationship with an ex-boyfriend, places an ad in the personals section of a newspaper . . .
All films are shown in McCosh 28, beginning at 8 p.m. For more information about the festival, or CGSA in general, you can visit: www.princeton.edu/~taiwan, or email: taiwan@princeton.edu.
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