Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat Drink Man Woman
Theatrical release poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese飲食男女
Simplified Chinese饮食男女
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYǐn shí nán nǚ
Directed byAng Lee
Written byAng Lee
James Schamus
Hui-Ling Wang
Produced byHsu Li-kong
Hsu Kong
Starring
CinematographyJong Lin
Edited byAng Lee
Tim Squyres
Music byThierry Mader Schollhammer
Production
companies
Distributed byCentral Motion Pictures (Taiwan)
The Samuel Goldwyn Company (United States)
Release dates
  • July 2, 1994 (1994-07-02) (Taiwan)
  • August 3, 1994 (1994-08-03) (United States)
Running time
123 minutes
CountriesTaiwan
United States
LanguageMandarin
Box office$24.2 million[1]

Eat Drink Man Woman (Chinese: 飲食男女) is a 1994 comedy-drama film directed by Ang Lee, from a script co-written with James Schamus and Hui-Ling Wang.[2] It stars Sihung Lung, Wang Yu-wen, Wu Chien-lien, and Yang Kuei-mei[3] as members of the Zhu family navigating the challenges of love, life, tradition and family. Part of Lee's "Father Knows Best" trilogy[4] and similar to Lee's other works, this film deals with the transition from tradition to modernity.[5] It is Lee's only film, to date, to be shot entirely in his native Taiwan.

The film premiered in Taiwan on July 2, 1994, and it was both a critical and box office success.[6] It won several accolades including an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.[7] It was also nominated for both a Golden Globe and BAFTA Award, as well as three Golden Horse Awards and six Independent Spirit Awards. It would inspire films like Tortilla Soup and Joyful Reunion [8] and has an eponymous musical rendition.[9] A BBC Culture poll of film critics ranked the film at number 54 of the 100 Greatest Non-English Language Films.[10]

The title is a quote from the Book of Rites, one of the Confucian classics, referring to the basic human desires and accepting them as natural. The beginning of the quote reads as follows: “The things which men greatly desire are comprehended in food and drink and sexual pleasure.”[a][11]


Cite error: There are <ref group=N> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=N}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "Worldwide rentals beat domestic take". Variety. February 13, 1995. p. 28.
  2. ^ Howe, Desson. "‘Eat Drink Man Woman’." The Washington Post. 19 October 1994. Retrieved on 20 November 2013.
  3. ^ Dickenson, Victoria (September 25, 2012). "Eat Drink Man Woman, Art Gallery of Mississauga, November 10–December 22, 2011, Curated by Tara Marshall". Cuizine. 3 (2). doi:10.7202/1012464ar. ISSN 1918-5480.
  4. ^ Dariotis, Wei Ming; Fung, Eileen (December 31, 2017). "7. Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar: Diaspora and Displacement in the Films of Ang Lee". Transnational Chinese Cinemas. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 187–220. doi:10.1515/9780824865290-010. ISBN 978-0-8248-6529-0. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  5. ^ Wei Ming Dariotis, Eileen Fung, "Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar: Diaspora and Displacement in the Films of Ang Lee," in Hsiao-peng Lu, ed., Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), p. 242.
  6. ^ "Eat Drink Man Woman (Yin shi nan nu) (1994)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  7. ^ "The 67th Academy Awards (1995) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  8. ^ Chang, Justin (March 27, 2012). "Joyful Reunion". Variety. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  9. ^ "2019新舞臺藝術節─音樂劇《飲食男女》 - 最新節目 | 衛武營國家藝術文化中心 Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts". www.npac-weiwuying.org (in Chinese). Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  10. ^ "The 100 greatest foreign-language films". www.bbc.com. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  11. ^ "Lǐyùn 禮運 19" [Ceremonial usages; their origins, development, and intention], Lǐjì 《禮記》 [Book of Rites]


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