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\title{``Eat, Drink, Man, Woman'' And ``Tampopo'' }
\author{David Golombek}
\date{March 28, 1998}

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\section{Introduction}

Sometimes two films have more in common than you expect, even when
your first reaction to the two films is that they are nearly
identical.  As I watched Ang Lee's 1994 masterpiece, ``Eat, Drink,
Man, Woman'' (henceforth EDMW) and Juzo Itami's 1987 film, ``Tampopo''
(henceforth TAM), I was continually finding new parallels to draw
between the two films.  I've seen both films several times before, but
never in close succession -- watching them back to back somewhat felt
like watching the same movie twice.  This isn't to say that both
movies don't have their own strong points and strong individual
details, but that the overall themes of the two movies are extremely
similar.

Both films take food as a main story line, with EDMW revolving around
a family whose father is a great chef, and TAM being based on a noodle
shop.  In EDMW, food plays a major role in the interactions between
the various family members; the family meets around a common table to
share announcements, and it plays a pivotal role in the relationship
between the father and his middle daughter.  In TAM, food is viewed in
several ways --- first, and most importantly, it is a commodity good,
to be sold at market, but in the sporadic clips interspersed
throughout the movie (seemingly randomly, although they have an
internal consistency, just no connection to the rest of the movie),
food is also treated as an element of sex, death, and childhood, which
should be a wide enough range of subjects to convince anyone that food
is pervasively involved in the society of the movie. 

It is not only in their use of food that the two directors make their
movies so similar, but also in the ways their characters interact, the
settings of the movies, the plots, and nearly every other measure as
well.  But it is this focus on food that I'd like to explore more,
since it was such an important part of both movies, and is so
comparatively rare to be featured in movies.  

\section{Why Food?}

Many people are surprised that these two directors based movies
largely on film.  But perhaps this is not nearly so surprising when
you consider the director's cultures, and the culture the movie is
based on and set in.  EDMW is set in Taiwan, which still has a rich
Chinese tradition, from the days before Chiang Kai-shek led his
Nationalist party to exile on Taiwan.  Far from having forgot their
roots, the Taiwanese still treasure their food, still in the mainland
haute style.  For a producer growing up in a culture such as this,
food would seem a natural core part of a movie.  Furthermore, just as
food ties the characters in the movie together, it ties the viewer and
the movie together.  Indeed, it does so perhaps even better than the
director expected, because EDMW has enjoyed great success around the
world, proving that food is a language of its own.  

TAM perhaps uses food due to slightly different reasons, although
without being able to ask the producer it is hard to say.  TAM seems
to use food almost because of its surprise value as an uncommonly used
subject.  The number of jokes based around food is immense (some of
the secret noodle recipes, and its use in sex, just to name a couple),
and throughout the movie, double entendres about food are
interspersed.  Certainly the role of food in the society that the
movie is set in influenced why food was picked, but it seems that
Itami is trying to poke fun at this core part of his society, or at
least get people to see it in a different way.  TAM seems to be a much
more local movie, that happened to make it big on the international
scene, and it still retains a lot of it's smaller scene feel (as
compared to the monsters coming out of Hollywood).  

\section{Food For Family}

Food is an integral part of the families shown in both movies.  Not
only does everyone (usually) eat dinner together every night, but they
all play either some role in its preparation or cleaning as well.  As
such, food can be thought of as a common task and experience for all
family members, as well as a time when they are in close proximity for
extended periods of time.  Even more importantly, there is a degree of
mindlessness about much of cooking -- although measuring takes
concentration, stirring, rolling, and cutting can all be done with a
freedom of mind.  This freedom of mind usually leads to conversation
to pass the time, and any form of extended conversation among family
is good.  In these modern times of fast foods and television dinners
for much of the world (certainly America, and spreading rapidly), this
common time for a family is quickly dissapearing.  This point is
illustrated well in EDMW, where the youngest daughter works at a fast
food joint.  The customers are displayed as being in a continual rush,
not even knowing what they're eating, eager just to finish their food
and be on their way.  Food also shapes a common set of experiences and
interests for the family --- the preparation, eating, and cleaning of
a large dinner is a strong memory, and family memories like this tie
its members together more strongly.

\section{Food For Others}

Although the strongest relationships seen in the two movies are ones
based around food, there is another large set of relationships being
formed -- those between the chefs and the people they are serving.
The father of the main family in EDMW is one of the head chefs at the
National Hotel, one of the fanciest establishments on the island.
Here, the old cuisine is maintained to the highest degree of quality
possible.  Although the father remains behind the scenes, the
reputation of the hotel heavily depends upon him.  As witnessed in the
scene of the Governor's son's party, he saves the day by transforming
the poor quality food into a delicacy -- a feat which earns him a pat
on the back from the manager.  But his power is really demonostrated
when he decides to quit, and his manager offers to follow him
anywhere, knowing thtat he'll always be a success.  The customers at
the National Hotel are going there expecting one of the best meals of
their lives, and he must meet and break those expectations.  Little of
this is explicitly shown, but you get the impression they are always
well pleased with the fathers' concoction.  A large part of the
fathers cooking is always the appearance of his dishes.  Even when he
can't taste his own cooking, he can still see the results, and so his
dishes are always visually splendid.

TAM is much more directly based on giving (and selling) food to other
people.  The ramen restaurant is the basis of the movie, and the
interactions between the chefs and the customers is a major part of
the movie.  The importance of the quality of noodle is very played
out, but very true too; for a food with as little visual stimuli as
ramen, taste is everything.  The chefs and customers in TAM are
seperated by a mere foot of table top, and every stage of preparation
is subject to inspection (and comment) from the customers, conditions
few chefs would be willing to put up with.  The chefs and customers
talk constantly, in a friendly banter very reminiscient of small New
York delis with regular customer bases.  

\section{Food And Gender}

Gender plays a surprisingly small role in both movies, which comes as
a great surprise to many American viewers, who have expectations that
cooking is a primarily female pastime (although chefs are of both
sexes, this has no bearing on the common opinion).  In PAM, we see
both male and female cooks of all ages, with little distinction
between the two sexes.  In EDMW, we appear to have a gender
distinction where the father won't let his middle daughter become a
chef, but we later find that he probably wouldn't have let a son
follow him either, preferring instead that his children move onto
bigger and better things.  Thus, surprisingly we see very little
gender discrimination in either film.

\section{Conclusion}

Despite having already seen both EDMW and TAM, watching them back to
back was a very revealing experience.  The two movies seemed even more
alike then they had previously, a strong statement in itself.  But the
overwhelming role of food in both movies led me to analyze its role
in the two movies.  Since food is a comparatively rare subject for
movies, that these two should focus on it so heavily was impressive.
Although there are certainly differences in the role of food in the
two movies, and how it is treated in them, the similarities far
outwiegh; in both films, food is a major part of family relationships,
relationships with outsiders, and life in general.  In fact, food is a
pervasive part of society, claiming a role in every part of life, from
birth till death.  In fact, I was very surprised not to see a mother
suckling her child in one of the movies, just to rub the point in even
further.  For both movies, one could say Food Is Life.

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