Director
Ang Lee
Leading Actors/Actresses
Sihung Lung, Yu-wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu, Kuei-mei Yang
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Winston Chao, Ah-Leh Gua, Sylvia Chang
Genre
Comedy-Drama
Language
Mandarin
Awards
1995 Nominee, Academy Award Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Asian Pacific Film Festival Winner, Best Film, and Best Film Editing. National Board of Review Winner, Best Foreign Language Film and Top Foreign Films.
Date of Release
July 2, 1994
Producer
Hsu Li-kong, Hsu Kong
Setting and Context
Set in Taiwan in the 1990s
Narrator and Point of View
The film is told from the perceptive of Mr. Zhu particularly for the cooking sequences but shifts to each of the daughters.
Tone and Mood
The tone of the film is funny and occasionally poignant. The mood is rather tense.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Mr. Zhu and his daughters Jia-Jen, Jia-Chien, and Jia-Ning are the protagonists while the clash between modernity and traditional ideas is the antagonist.
Major Conflict
The major conflict is the tension between the father and daughters as their cultural beliefs clashes with each other in the changing modern world. Zhu raised his daughters with Confucian ideals about gender, now the modern landscape throws him a curveball in protecting or advising them.
Climax
The climax of the film occurs when Jia-Chien realizes that his father has a medical condition that would require her to alter the plans to relocate for work.
Foreshadowing
Mr. Zhu deteriorating cooking skills at home and in the restaurant foreshadows his health problems and loss of taste later in the film.
Understatement
Before Mr. Zhu is aware of his loss of taste, the workmates and daughters understate their response towards his cooking to protect his ego.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
The camera shots of the culinary sequences popularized the film aesthetic of Asian cuisines and their complex recipes.
Allusions
The film alludes to modern Taiwan and the transitions occurring to the culture that the older generation was accustomed to. Moreover, the title references a quotation from the Confucian classic Books of Rites in regards to the basic desires of human beings.
Paradox
The paradox that the director addresses are the gender-based constraints that discourage the participation of women in the workforce yet they deliver similar results if not better.
Parallelism
The film parallels the career and love lives of the three daughters as they navigate the modern landscape while reconciling their Confucian background.
