Every week starting from the week beginning January 20 students will be required to write a minimum of 1 blog entry on the movie that we have watched in class. This entry will be due every Tuesday at 12 noon exactly ONE WEEK after the previous weeks film screening.

Your blog entries may take one of many different approaches: you can reflect on parts of the film that you found interesting or had an impact on you. You can describe how this film illustrates a particular psychological theory or idea. You can link part of the film to your own life experiences. You can critique the film, describing what you liked or disliked about the story or the acting. You can even set up links to other films or TV shows that share similar themes to the film.

The blog entry should be a minimum of 300 words.

Note that your lecturer, tutor and fellow classmates will be given access to this blog so please use your discernment when deciding what to write and share.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Movie Review 3: Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (9.0/10)

"Basic human desires... Is that all there is to life?" 
- Master Chu, "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman" (1994)

Ang Lee portayed relationships in both serious and lighhearted manners in "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman". between sibling, parent-child, courtship, and friends, these elements are interwoven in the film to show how each interacts with the other. 

 Lee was unafraid to dabble in commonly avoided situations in marriage. Examples of this is found when Jia-Jen (first daughter) compromised her religiosity for marriage, when Master Chu’s first and third daughter married so abruptly and when Master Chu marries someone as young as his daughters. Lee also touches briefly on divorce and promiscuity.

 Perhaps the most important relationship in the film was that of Jia-Chien (second daughter) and her father. While she starts off as the most carefree daughter who wanted nothing to do with the family, it is slowly reveal how close she was to her father as a child and how she resembled her mother most (among the three siblings). The movie ends with Jia-Chien being the only one single and able to relate to Master Chu.

The sibling dynamics between Jia-Jen and Jia-Chien was also explored and developed. Jia-Jen assumed a parental role, at her mothers death, despite the fear of not being able to get married. Jia-Chien, on the other hand, had her fathers favor because she resembled her mother most. That, her sexually active lifestyle, becomes a catalyst for Lee to portray sibling rivalry.

In my opinion, Lee’s use of symbols helped represent the situation clearly. The breaking of the plate during Jia-Jen and Jia-Chien’s confiding moment (and Jia-Jen’s exclamation after) embodied the breaching of socio-cultural wall that took place. Three, seemingly random, scenes of traffic and a police directing traffic also represented the unseen emotional tension that was slowly channeled out as the film developed.

I feel that the message conveyed in this film was the importance of proper emotional expression in relationships. Master Chu waited from the beginning to the end of the movie to announce his intent of marrying Jin-Rong, being interrupted by the snowballing of events. I noted that the typical personality of the middle and youngest child was either incorrect, or intentionally switched. Birth order theory suggests that the parents favor the youngest child, while the middle child acts as the peacemaker between siblings.


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)