If I were to say what the film wants to express most, I think it is the traditional and modern family model, the mutual compromise and balance between the individual as himself and his role in the family.
After the whole family is reborn, eating the recipe of the past wife in the old house of the past, isn't this the perfect reconciliation and balance of the past and the future, the traditional family model and the modern personal life? Those who have a deep understanding of this should see tears in their eyes.
I watched this movie yesterday and loved it. Probably my all-time favorite family movie. Organize your viewing notes today
1. The most silent person in front of each other is also the person who is most like each other
In this film, Ang Lee uses the narration method of first showing the illusion, then presenting the details, and finally giving the answer, so that the audience can gradually realize the deep reason of the appearance. In the end, the audience's self-understanding and the "truth" told by the characters, let the audience understand that it turned out to be such a family, and it turned out to be such a story.
Apart from Jiazhen's love tragedy and her father's indifference and loneliness, the illusion at the beginning of the movie is the relationship between Jiaqian and her father. This is also the emotional line of the soul of the whole film.
At the beginning of the movie, I felt that Jia Zhen was the one who understood and cared about her father the most, Jia Ning was the one who was most obedient and kind, and Jia Qian was the one who was most estranged from her family and her father. She was anxious to break free from the shackles of her family, feeling that she was not understood and needed. In fact, she was the one who inherited the most wisdom and character from her father, the one most similar to her mother, and, without a doubt, the one her father loved the most. And she is actually the one who understands and cares about her father the most, just because she is too similar to her father, and she is as tolerant as her father in expressing her emotions. At the same time, he also has the magical ability to express emotions in cooking like his father. She and her father deeply explained that "the most silent person in front of each other is also the person most like each other."
2. Prosperity is gone, family and love
In the first half of the film, there is a sense of vicissitudes of prosperity and withering everywhere. And the love in the movie has nothing to do with happiness. The ex-wife leaves, young lovers torture each other, wishful crushes, marriages that hurt each other, and soulless physical relationships... The torture in love seems to appear over and over again in the movie. The conflict between modern concept of love and traditional marriage and love, supplemented by the mental state of people under modernism, everyone is unhappy because everyone is struggling.
In the film I also see the impact of the family of origin on the love life. Jiazhen is the biggest, and her mother's departure has the deepest impact on her love. As the eldest daughter, she considers it her responsibility to support her family and accompany her father, and sacrifices her love. Jia Qian lost her status in the family because of her similarities with her parents and her father's special and incomprehensible love for her, and her love with her boyfriend could only be maintained at the stage of a sexual partner. Jia Ning is the youngest, and her family has the least influence on her. She represents a young, independent modern view of love.
3. The food is on the table, but there is no appetite
Before the ending, the movie always conveys the illusion that the father's body is aging and his desire is declining, especially the cleaning of the hospital makes the audience play with Jia Qian.
In fact, the father is the one who has always been the most dissatisfied and has the most "appetite" for life. Just like Jiazhen, the "rationality" of maintaining the traditional family model constrained him to boldly rush to the new life. And he takes this repression and dissatisfaction as a way of venting through cooking. In the front part of the movie, he is happiest almost only when he is cooking, because his desire for life that has not bowed to aging has been briefly vented. The Sunday family dinner at the beginning of the movie, the overly rich dishes and the lack of appetite of the father and daughter at the table also symbolize that this traditional family structure has caused a great imbalance to everyone's depression, which is reflected in the diet of the father. In his mouth, "the food came to the table, but I lost my appetite." What's more, my father's sense of taste disappeared.
4. What if she hates photography?
This is an episode. When her boyfriend mentioned that Ah Ma only responded to the camera, Jia Ning's soul asked, "Maybe she doesn't want to be photographed."
Once built in the wrong direction, giving becomes torture.
In fact, the whole family is not like this. Jia Zhen adds the responsibility of the hostess of the family to herself and suppresses her love. Her father hides her feelings because of her father's responsibility. understood and needed. Their love and responsibility for each other just limit and hurt each other, just like working together to reverse the gears.
5. Chinese taste, Chinese family
Although there are many things that Western Elektra complex can explain, just like the unique flavor of Chinese cuisine, the Chinese family presented in the film is still not fully parsed by any Western theory. It is deeply rooted in our traditional culture and genes. Even if the thought and education received are modern and Western, we who grew up in China always have a Chinese-style family awareness in our blood and subconscious. This is why many young people are thinking about breaking free from their parents' shackles and pursuing independence, but at the same time they can't let go of their concern for their parents and their sense of "filial piety". Most of us are "people trapped by families", and the struggle and entanglement between traditional family affection and individual independent thinking is a topic unique to modern oriental culture.
If I were to say what the film wants to express most, I think it is the traditional and modern family model, the mutual compromise and balance between the individual as himself and his role in the family.
The father refused Jia Qian to enter the kitchen and inherited the cooking skills, which can be understood as the simple and rude method adopted by the father for the evolution of "tradition to modernity, family to independence". Among them are the pain of losing his wife, and his unique feelings for his second daughter. He regards Jiaqian as the continuation and evolution of his life, but he believes that the most direct way of "evolution" is to reject her interest in cooking. Inheritance, forcing her to become an independent individual with a successful career. And this really played a big role, but it also caused Jia Qian's loss of status in the family and the estrangement between father and daughter. Jiaqian's "purely sexual partner" relationship with her boyfriend, as well as "it's strange, I don't seem to have any childhood memories unless I cook them out." are the sequelae of this trauma. The whole film shows how the father and Jiaqian make up for the trauma caused by this simple and rude "evolution", and how to obtain the naturalness and balance of life.
The departure of old friends and the departure of daughters have brought changes to everyone in the family. Father and Jiaqian have a deeper understanding of "family" and each other. At the same time, Jiazhen's new love life also unexpectedly makes the restrictions on each other that Jiazhen and her father built together vanish into thin air. The father finally decided to bid farewell to the past, pursue true love, and give the family a new lease of life. Jiaqian also understands the meaning of her father and this family to herself, and truly understands her "being needed".
In the last part that also makes the movie the most moving, my father gets a taste of Jiaqian's soup. After the whole family is reborn, eating the recipe of the past wife in the old house of the past, isn't this the perfect reconciliation and balance of the past and the future, the traditional family model and the modern personal life? Those who have a deep understanding of this should see tears in their eyes.
The father was able to put down his kitchen utensils and give it to Jiaqian to taste the soup made by Jiaqian. This is also the best reconciliation between father and daughter for each other and themselves in more than ten years.
One "father", one "daughter", no more words needed. The two people are indeed the happiness of everyone in the whole movie.
6. Extract some lines
"People are rough, and it doesn't matter how well you eat."
"What is a pity? It's a pity if there is a word of pity in my heart."
"Actually, a family lives under one roof, and they can still live their own lives, but the scruples that arise in their hearts are what makes a home a home."
"Good sound is not in the ears, and good taste is not in the mouth."
"Diet men and women, this is what people do in their entire lives?
Who has tasted it? "
"It's weird, I don't seem to have childhood memories unless I cook them."
View more about Eat Drink Man Woman reviews
