Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat + Drink + Man + Woman = Life?

            Ever since I was young, I always wonder what kind of life I will be having in the later part or stage of my life, and hence, this actually get me to always look forward for the possibly upcoming challenges and changes to be made. Contradictorily, I had actually also come to a realization that it always seemed to be too early for me among my peers to think and consider of all these, in which had resulted me of not having too much young, youthful and wild memories. Back in my secondary school life, it was obvious when I was having deep lost and struggling to find the meaning of life, while my peers were still having fun to silly stuff like imitating the way of dogs having sex. That time, I watched a lot of philosophical movies, I read a lot of books, I searched a lot of information, I tried to see and learn how people live their life, and eventually managed to get myself an answer to clear my doubts ­­­— live your own life, the way of you can find true happiness.

            In the movie, Eat Drink Man Woman, I was able to see a way of life, a way of how life always revolves around four components, namely eating, drinking, man and woman.

I saw the importance of eating. It served more than just the purpose of filling up one’s stomach, but also the medium to reunite family members, and also the platform for a parent to express his love to his children. Perhaps it was not the healthiest and most effective way to communicate with each other, but Mr. Chu still chose to do it every week by preparing banquet at his own even though he surely knew that they would not be able to finish it. Instead, he was hoping his children would understand his way of expressing his love to them through this way, rather than doing it explicitly.

I saw the importance of drinking, or referred to have alcoholic drinks in the context of this movie. It was easily suitable in daily life as it helped people to express their feelings better, and was also a symbolic tool; drink when announcing important stuff; drink when chitchatting casually; drink when celebrating a festive; drink when wanting to unwind oneself.

I saw the importance of the relationship between man and woman, let it be family relationships and love relationship here. It is a bond that is so important in an individual’s life, carrying the function to bring meaning of life in many circumstances. And, I think this movie had brought up and highlighted some important issues in regard to this. Though a marriage between two persons with a big gap between their ages, a quick marriage that came after premarital pregnancy between two young and innocent couples, a regular sexual relationship between exes, and an ironic marriage between a faithful Christian and a person that one just met were the subjects presented in the movie that were arguably against the social norms, but they all shared a common characteristic.

It was happiness, it was certainly the factor leading them to have the courage to chase after their wills. It was the courage that many people are lacking of nowadays, the courage that was crippled strongly by the society expectation, parental expectation, peer influence and pressure, stereotypical expectation and judgment and social norms. I think the movie had done a remarkably job of getting the audiences to reflect these issues upon themselves, wanting people to think thoroughly about their current life. Even if having a high likelihood of being judged by the others, people should not be afraid of doing the things that could bring themselves great happiness as long as not disobeying the laws and causing harms. It was because nobody should really live for somebody’s will, and everybody deserved the chance to live a way of life that one wants.

Eat-drink-man-woman is undoubtedly a way of life, but not necessary the way everyone should be following. It had however acted as a mirror for me, myself to have an in-depth reflection, a mirror for me to realize myself having so many things in life that I want to do but being suppressed by so many external factors, and most importantly the courage that is always absenting. The movie is definitely inspiring for me, driving me to live my own life and start stepping out of my own repressed mind and behavior.