Movie: Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食男女)

The title of "Eat Drink Man Woman" comes from when Mr Chu tells his friend what his life seems to consist of. And it is impossible to talk about Ang Lee's movie from 1994 without mentioning food. Just the opening scene left me both hungry and fascinated, and cooking is used in the movie to symbolize and illustrate several aspects of family relations.
The film tells a story of a widowed father and his three grown-up daughters. At the start they all three still lives at home, but that changes soon. From the start, the pacing and filming makes it directly evident that this is quality cinema, we are invited to a slow but never boring, colorful but never stressed, tale of parenthood and leaving home, and the balancing of love and loyalty both for parents and children. I just loved this, and how Lee managed to avoid drama while still inciting such strong feelings of empathy for the characters and their lives.