Classic Food Films: Eat Drink Man Woman, Sweet Bean and Lunchbox

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Sweet Bean (2015) is a Japanese film that is a joy to watch as it slowly unfolds before us. I miss this kind of pacing and I thank Director Naomi Kawase for directing it so well that I found one Japanese film that is so filling, not only visually but also story-wise. Of course, it is an intended pun because An is the soul, the sweet bean filling, of the dorayaki, a spongy pancake. This movie invites us to see possibilties beyond our limitations and do our best in our life through the friendship of a teenager with inconsiderate mother, a middle age man who hates Dorayaki and an old woman who makes the perfect An. Almost every scene is a poetry in motion for me.

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Eat Drink Man Woman is a 1994 Ang Lee film that gave us a visual treat of some chinese cooking as backdrop to a story that delights us with all the twist. But as much as I loved the long exposure of kitchen techniques at the start, I doubly loved the scene where the father and daughter had finally connected. I snapped the scene and posted here as this reminded me of my own father. Well, what do we do in order to live? Eat and Drink, of course. 


Lunchbox (2013) is an Indian film that invites us to let our senses and dreams open up through good food. Though I really really wished there are more visuals on food preparation here and more allusions to food and life in this film, it surely brought home the point that good food evokes our creativity, childhood memories, zest for life, possibilities for love, new dreams. 

At any rate, while watching this film, I craved for Milk Tea that I scooped out my second from the last helping of cardamoms (shoutout to my benefactor in Malaysia)  and my loose black tea after watching it. I also churned out my chicken gizzard and liver into a very very lazy curry with potatoes, bayleaf, curry powder and chilis. What a burplicious dinner atm.

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