Final Project: Digital Recipe

Spencer Lazzari

CHI 321

Dr. Luo

12/8/2013

Final Project: Eat Drink Man Woman

            From the sound of the sizzling oil as the battered fish is dropped into the wok to the clatter of the cleaver upon the cutting board when cutting a ripe water chestnut, Eat Drink Man Woman by Ang Lee was a captivating film. In an interview, Lee described how he wanted to make a film about “a chef and his three daughters, each going a different way” (Ang Lee Interview: Freedom in Film, p. 335). Because of this, not only was the sight and sound of the food captivating, but the intricate relationship between the family members keeps the viewer’s attention throughout the entire film. Similarly to how “Old Chu” extensively prepares a meal using a wide variety of ingredients, him and his 3 daughters, who are all very different, come together to form a dish and chemistry of their very own, a family.

            As all great chefs know, in order to create a great dish, you must first know your ingredients. The first “ingredient” in the “dish” (rather Chu’s family) that we will be discussing here is the middle-child, Jia-Chien. Although you can tell her personality by her dealings with the family, it is best described by Chu’s friend “Old Wen,” when he describes her by saying “That girl just didn’t come from nowhere. Jia-Chien is the perfect blend of you (Chu) and her mother: her mother’s stubbornness and willfulness, and the pickiness and pomposity… come straight from you!” (Eat Drink Man Woman. 00:22:43). As far as food goes, I believe that ingredient she best embodies is garlic. One of the prominent traits that both garlic and Jia-Chien share is being zippy (which for people we would call being “sassy”). This can be seen when Chu and her are talking and he says “How many times have I told you not to fall asleep at your desk? It’s bad for your posture”; to which she retorts quickly, even in her sleep deprived state, “And didn’t the doctor tell you that jogging was bad for your back?” (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:25:05). This scene clearly makes it known that Jia-Chien has no problem expressing how she feels. Another trait that both Jia-Chien and garlic possess is strength.  One thing that makes her strong is the fact that she is so independent. As a young 20-something living in the city, she has really made a name for herself as an airline executive; and the fact that she is about to get promoted to a better job in another country further describes how independent she truly is. Not only is her strength displayed in her independence, but also through how has to juggle her life and make decisions. For example, when she is at the first Sunday dinner scene in the film, she tells her family “I have a little announcement to make… [talks about an apartment her friend has a connection to]…he was able to get my bid in for a good price” (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:13:24). It takes a very strong person to move away from their family, especially one that is already somewhat separated, and that the fact that they are separated clearly causes the father grief.

            The next character that I would like to discuss is the oldest daughter, Jia-jen. For me, she is best represented by the ingredient of cooking wine. There are several reasons why I think she is best suited for this description. One of the greatest traits that makes her like wine is her age, and with age comes wisdom. For instance during one of the scenes in the family kitchen, the daughters are all cleaning up and discussing their father’s personal matters. When Jia-Chien makes a snide comment, Jia-jing quickly responds (showing her age and wisdom) by saying “What do you know? Maybe it’s not romance to you but it was found on real old-fashioned respect and values…how would you know [though]? You were a kid when she died” (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:17:30). Another instance in the film when Jia-Jen shows her age is when she and Jin-Rong are outside on the back porch talking. They are talking about the future of Chu and she says “Father wants to live with me…How many more Sunday dinners can we have? Jia-Ning is young, Jia-Chien is independent, so I’ll have to take care of Dad [Chu] for the rest of my life” (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:20:14). This is something that takes a lot of maturity (which comes with age) to admit. Bitterness is another trait that Jia-jen shares with the wine I compared her too earlier. One of the most prominent instances of the film this happens at is when her students are passing one of their classmate’s notes through the room and she catches them. We learn earlier in the film that she had a boyfriend earlier in the film and it didn’t end well. Her father lets us know this when he is talking to Old Wen and asks (rhetorically), Jia-jin will “marry who? Since she lost her asshole college boyfriend she’s never looked at another man.” (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:21:50). When she is in the classroom and she sees the love note, it clearly bothers her because she says, “Writing love letters in chemistry class?” (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:28:00) when the boy responds letting her know that someone wrote it to him, she quickly snaps back with “So what? What is this doing in class? Showing off? Who hasn't received love letters before?” (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:28:30). It’s worth noting that this event occurs right after she goes outside to return the ball to the men’s volleyball team, and when she first sees the coach; the man that we later find out she was feeling affection for.

            The final component of our “dish” that we are creating is Jia-Ning, the student and fast-food restaurant employee. At first, it was difficult to put a finger on what contribution she would make to our dish, but after thinking about it, it is as simple as plain, white rice. How exactly would this component add any noticeable difference to our “dish” (family)? First of all, relative to her other sisters, she is fairly mellow. A simple example of this would be when the sisters are all working in the kitchen together. If you notice she is going around mediating the conversation, and making sure everyone is alright (specifically Jia-jin). When the other two start to fight with each other, she butts in and says “Stop it you two” (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:17:30); she is the the voice of reason and neutrality in that discussion. However, although she, by herself, is somewhat of a mild-mannered person, being that she is around the others, she is influenced by their actions; similar to how rice in a dish takes on the stronger flavors of the other ingredients. One example of this is when she starts to get into love matters of her own. One day after she gets off of work, she goes outside to tell her friend’s boyfriend that his girlfriend will be an hour late. However, you can see through her actions, especially the way she looks at him in the end, that she has feelings for him (Eat Drink Man Woman, 00:08:40). Being that she is going after this boy while her friend is still seeing him (well, somewhat seeing him) shows that she is taking after her sister’s (Jia-Chien) “go getter” attitude. However, she is also smart about it and takes her time, which is more like what her other sister, Jia-jin, would do. It is in this way that she not only absorbs the personality of those around her, but also through that mellows the family out.

            To me, it is easy to see how these three girls come together to form family; the three totally different ingredients, with entirely different sights, smells, and tastes, come together to form a wonderful dish. However, if it wasn’t for the father’s insisting, they would not come together successfully. If you really think about it, one of the main things holding these girls, who have such different lives, together is the fact that the father holds his Sunday dinners; he is essentially carefully preparing them and bringing them together, just like he would with any dish.

Works Cited

Ang Lee. Freedom in Film. Pg. 335. Interview.

Eat Drink Man Wwoman. Dir. Ang Lee. Perf. Sihung Lung and Chien-lien Wu. Zhong Yang Dian Ying Chu Pin Fa Xing, 1994. DVD.

Woman Demon Human

Spencer Lazzari

10/13/2013

CHI 321-001

Dr. Luo

Woman Demon Human: A Case for Gender Equality

                Woman Demon Human showcases the life of a young opera singer in pre-revolution China. As you can imagine, life for the young-girl-turned-actress, Qiu Yun, is not easy in the beginning. Due to how China, historically, has dealt with women, she had a bit of a rough time from friends, family members, and others. However, I believe that in the end she defied all stereotypes, paid no attention to naysayers, overcame it all, and became wildly successful as a female playing a male role; which is something that was very rarely done in China.

                First, I believe it is important to establish, and let the record show, the pattern of disrespect with which women were treated. This can pattern can be immediately seen in the movie through the way that the male characters treat Qiu Yun. There are several cases in the movie in which the male characters and actors look down upon the females. One of the most prominent scenes that this happens in is the scene where the little boys are poking fun at Qiu Yun (20:32).But first, at the beginning of the movie, there is a scene (4:40) in which the children are all playing nicely together before the scene starts. They are putting make up on the young Qiu Yun. After they are done putting makeup on her, she stands up and they all complement her and call her pretty. Originally, you might think of this as the children being kind to her, while in all actuality they are simply reinforcing the standards that society has put into place that women are supposed to be beautiful, and are not supposed to do anything but that. Common knowledge that children learn by observation tells us that these children learned to treat women this way by observing other, older, members of their social groups. Now, back to the first scene in which this idea is mainly portrayed in; in which the young children are playing in the marsh area (20:32). The other children start picking on Qiu Yun for her mother running away, and there is even a small fight that breaks out. If they would’ve picked on the brother as well, then you could say that they were simply “being kids.” However, being that they singled out Qiu Yun as the only girl, and then started to make fun of her, and in a way make her feel responsible for her mother’s leaving, it just goes to show how biased Chinese society was; even for someone at a child’s age.

                Flash forward to when she is a teenager, the pattern of disrespect continues. One of the most prominent instances of this is during the scene where Qiu Yun and her friends are anxiously navigating the bazaar, exploring the various goods that it has to offer (around 42:00). You notice since the beginning that the villagers are acting kind of strange with her, and sometimes avoiding conversation. And then, a major event occurs (at forty-two minutes and forty-five seconds in). Qiu Yun is caught by a girl in the women’s restroom who thought that Qiu Yun was a boy. Qiu Yun was then dragged out into a center court in the bazaar and quickly surrounded by all of the villagers. They start to interrogate her and assume that she is not a girl, simply by looking at the short length of her hair. Suddenly, a strange man approaches (whom we have not seen before) and starts to vouch for her. He then hands one of the angry villagers a document (presumably an ID of sorts) that states the fact that she is in fact a girl (even though it is most likely an ID that belongs to someone else; this is never disclosed to the viewer, though). The stranger and Qiu Yun then walk away from the mob, and away from the villagers and their lingering questions and comments. Qiu Yun’s friends and her are then reunited and they take off. This situation is a clear and obvious example of using societal norms and stereotypes to judge others, something that the villagers in this town were used to doing, clearly.

                Regardless of intention, these stereotypes and others were employed in pre-revolution China for whatever reason (for control and power reasons maybe). One of the more strange examples of this is one of gender segregation. In Ying Jin Zhang’s historical work titled “Chinese National Cinema,” he slightly hinted on this idea of segregation when he talked about how a figure in the film industry “divided Beijing audiences into four groups: (1) the majority liked exciting stories with convoluted plots; (2) women liked sentimental tales and tear-jerkers; (3) more senior, experienced audiences liked characterization in depth; (4) a minority of intellectuals liked to study meaning in a film” (Zhang 19). Although you could simply state that this was just a tactic in order split up the audience and make sure that they get to see films that they prefer, you could also view it in a more “biased light.” You could view it as the person singling out women, and grouping them by one not-necessarily-true assumption.

                However, despite all of this, Qiu Yun still becomes very successful, even though she is a woman. Around the middle of the movie, you can see that she is already starting to attain success, as she seems to be the head actress in the group of girls (52:15). In the scene around 1:24:30, though, her success really starts to become apparent. She is flipping through the magazine looking at an article about herself, which is an obvious sign of success; for if she was not famous, then why would she be written about in what is a seemingly popular magazine. After she is done flipping through the magazine, the man that came to her apartment with these things hands her a stack of papers, one can only assume that these are letters that have been written to her. After this, the scene that starts at 1:24:46 also shows her great success. There is a large dinner thrown, and as she walks into the room filled with Chinese and foreigners alike, she is greeted with enthusiasm and has candid photos taken of her. She is even presented with a contract that invites her to do something with France. All these things make it clear that she is a success story in China, as a woman.

                From the beginning where she was discriminated against, to the end where she was essentially famous, Qiu Yun went on a long journey. However, at the end of the journey she became wildly successful, and very well known. Towards the end of the movie, you notice how males are less judgmental towards her, and accept her as an equal, not basing anything on gender; which for a woman in China (back then), recognition like that could be a sign of success in its own right. As stated in the beginning, this demonstrates that she overcame everything, as a woman in China, and became a success.

Works Cited

Woman Demon Human. Dir. Shuqin Huang. 1987. Film.

Zhang, Yingjin. Chinese National Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.