Eat Drink Man Woman Movie Review (1994)

An endearing romantic comedy about three sisters and their Master Chef father, Eat Drink Man Woman has a whole lot of heart and even more amazing food.

I have heard mumblings about this film forever. I have been looking for it for years, but it doesn’t seem to be available to stream in the United States, so you have to buy a copy of the DVD or Blu-Ray. Randomly, though, I got lucky enough to watch someone else’s copy.

Eat Drink Man Woman is about three adult sisters and their father who all live together in Taiwan. Each sister (one who works at a fast food restaurant, the second who is climbing the corporate ladder at an airline company, and the third a chemistry teacher) is looking for love and trying to navigate relationships under different circumstances. Their father, who is a renowned chef, is losing his sense of taste, but continues to make a huge family dinner every Sunday.

This is a delightful story that will keep you interested and keep you guessing about various relationships until the end. The sister who is an airline employee always wanted to be a chef, and still has a knack for it, but her father told her that wasn’t appropriate for a woman. The teacher, who was heartbroken after a failed relationship, dedicated her life to Christianity and shut down, but there are cracks in that façade. The restaurant worker is (maybe) looking for love in the wrong place.

Eat Drink Man Woman is the description of basic desires that the father, Chef Chu, says exist. Everyone needs to consume food and beverages and are drawn to having a partner, but with his wife having passed away, he is left only with his daughters and his kitchen.

While all of the actors are great, it is the food that really shines. There are countless scenes of food being cooked, complete with sizzling sounds, steam moving the top of a pot, and the end result being an amazingly put together plate of who knows what. There is fish, tofu, steamed buns, beautifully chopped and/or carved vegetables, a raw duck that Master Chu blows up with his mouth so that he can baste and cook it properly, and so much more. That was my absolute favorite thing about this movie and there was never enough or too much.

Food is a running theme. It is what connects the family, where the youngest sister works, where Master Chu is called to when there is an emergency in the professional kitchen, and even where he trades his homemade lunches with a little girl who he considers family so she can have them at school. And in return, he eats the lunch her mom packed for her. He is losing his taste, so what does it matter?

I expected Eat Drink Man Woman to be a very straightforward and wholesome comedy, but there are some unexpected nuances. Responsibilities change hands, outlooks mature, but in the end, you get the heartwarming moments you were looking for from this film. It’s a good one.

Runtime: 125 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: Not Rated (I would say somewhere around PG)

Languages Spoken In The Film: Mandarin (with English subtitles)

Should You Watch It? Yes

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Available: Unavailable to stream in the US, but you can purchase copies of the Blu-Ray or DVD