Eat Drink Man Woman ( Ang Lee ) 1994

Eat Drink Man Woman is the 1994 Taiwanese film by director Ang Lee. Upon this film’s release it was met with much critical and commercial praise and helped launch the career of it’s now critically acclaimed director. Lee would go on to produce a string of successful films such as Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain . The main language in the film is Manderan .

The film opens with a chef preparing a delectable meal . Lee shots the whole process and preparation of the meal with the chef executing his cooking skills as If he has been doing this for years . The chef turns out to be Tao Chu, who is a widower, dictatorial father, and master chef. His taste buds no longer work and he relies on his assistant When to tell him whether a dish tastes good or not.






All three of his daughters reluctantly still live at home with Tao . Jia-Jen his eldest daughter is a schoolteacher and seems quite content to stay at home with her father. Jia-Chen his second daughter , she is a very successful airline executive who is in the process of moving out. Jai -Chen has all her money invested into an apartment so that she could start a new life. Jia-Ning is his youngest daughter , she has a part - time job at Wendy's.

Every Sunday Chu insists that they sit down for a Sunday dinner. Jia-Chen describes them as their Sunday torture.

One of the themes of this film is the relationship between a father and his children. In a addition to this the age and culture conflict between Tao and his daughters.

The themes of family and tradition are highlighted throughout the movie by the insistence of Sunday dinner by Tao. Mr. Chu prepares these elaborate dinners every Sunday for his three daughters. He puts these Sunday dinners together as an expression of his for his children, although her really has hard time verbally communicating with each of them. This is his way of saying “I Love you “, and it means a lot to the ageing chef. The daughters seem to go to the dinners out of tradition, obligation and respect for their father not because they want to be there. One piece of the film that I found was a direct conflict of the two generations was the fact that Tao’s youngest daughter worked at Wendy’s. The daughter of a Master Chef is working at a fast food resturatnt. It is likely to believe that Tao found this to be insulting to him, because the quality of food is his life and livelihood.

Throughout the movie all of the characters lead separate lives, but every Sunday they come together as one. Every dinner, a member of the family would have a life-altering announcement to make.

The family does not follow many traditions that go along with Chinese culture. One big thing that I noticed is the fact that the daughters arent being married in the traditional Chinese way. The youngest daughter, Jia Vig, defies tradition by getting married first in the family, and also getting pregnant before marriage. The middle daughter, Jia Chien, is a very successful corporate executive who put her career before everything which too defies traditional Chinese tradition

I really enjoyed this film for many reasons. I have encountered some families who were similar to Tao’s. They conveyed the relationship of a repressed family who had a hard time opening up to one another very well . Although it was a very light hearted and humorous film , I feel that the film still was taken seriously and wasn’t overly silly like how some of the films in America would have taken it. I felt that the Theme of family tradition was throughout the entire film was what ultimately kept the family together. Although the daughters found Sunday dinners to be forced and not want to go , it was this that in the end kept the family closer.

Clip from the Making of Documentary

Bombay ( Mani Ratman ) 1995

Bombay is an award-winning Tamil film by director Mani Ratman. The film takes place in Bombay, India during the time of the 1992 and 1993 Hindu / Muslim riots . This film deals with many provocative subjects : such as Religious prejudice and the violent conflict between Muslim and Hindu in India.

Shekhar (Arvind Swamy) is a Hindu . He is young and educated and has a job working in the newspaper in Bombay. Shekhar has no interest in an arranged marriage and intends to leave the village for Bombay permanently. One day, he spots Shaila Bano (Manisha Koirala) a Muslim girl, just as her black veil is lifted by the wind, momentarily revealing her face. This small glimpse is enough for him. Shekhar is instantly in love with the beautiful young Shaila. He pursues her and she is very hesitant because of the religious differences between Hindu and Muslim. Although she is reluctant , Shailia too is in love . Shekhar and Shaila are deeply in love and cannot live without one anothe .

When Shekhar informs Shaila Bano's father that he intends to marry her, Shaila Bano's father informs Shekhar that he intends to hack him to pieces with his machete first. He even intends to have an emergency wedding to another Muslim arranged . When Shekhar informs his own father that he intends to marry Shaila, his own father proclaims, "Over my dead body!" Interestingly, the fathers are mirrors of each other: they wear their religion in obvious and explicit ways, and they both guilt trip their children in similar fashion. But their love cant be contained or controlled.




The two then rush to get married and move to the heart of Bombay. Although Shaila Bano is initially uncomfortable in her new surroundings, their marriage slowly warms and becomes happy. The two are very much in love with each other. Eventually, Shaila Bano becomes pregnant , the news is met with more animosity from their fathers. Both wanting the children to be raised their religion. Shaila has twins Kabir Narayan and Kamal Basheer who will be raised both Muslim and Hindu.

The grandparents eventually warm up to the idea of Shaila and Shekhars family and visit the them after six years in Bombay together. Shaila has a very emotional meeting with her mother who she has missed so much. The grandparents are overjoyed about their grandchildren and everything seems to be falling into place for the family.

During this time ,religious extremists launch each community against the other, causing a wave of riots that leave hundreds dead in Bombay. With their sons of both cultures Shekur and Shailia are terrified for their children s safety. Both Grandparents die during the violence and the twins become lost in Bombay. Shekhar and Shaila eventually get their children back, and also put an end to the riot.

The central theme of Bombay Is the religious prejudice that Shalia and Shekhar face. In their respective religions it is considered to be taboo for a person to marry an outsider. The reason for this is the differences in religious beliefs and culture. Aspects of theme lead to another area that Ratman wanted to touch on which were the Bombay Riots of 1992 and 1993, which take place in the third act of the film.

This theme carries throughout the film into the second act where Hindus and Muslims are at war with one another on the streets. I feel in Shalia and Shekura relationship, Ratman wanted to show the possibility of change in this divide of Indian culture. Both sets of Grandparents showed great prejudice and reluctance to their children’s relationship. They two are brought together with the birth of their grandchildren who are both Hindu and Muslim. This film exemplifies the tenderness that a both families can demonstrate out of love, even when there is the biggest bridge between the two. In a way the parents of Shalia and Shekar couldn’t help but to try to protect their children, because they knew the hardships and prejudice they would face as a couple. Even through years of divide and the prejudice against one another both parties come together for their children and grandchildren. In the film, as the hatred tears violently through the streets of Bombay, a good-natured and humorous conversation between Shekhar's father and Shaila Banu's is taking place. Also when the destruction and violence is a its peak Shekhar's father risks his life to save the other man's Koran.



The main thing that Ratman was trying to communicate is that there is room for peace , tolerance and understanding. This goes way beyond Hindu and Muslim ideals, this theme could be interpreted and applied in any couture. There are cultural and relgious divides everywhere in the world, but as long as we all respect each other , there could be peace. Towards the end of the film where Shekura is frantically looking for his two sons , he begins to yell and a Muslim and a Hindu saying we are Indian and we are the same.

As we began to watch Bombay I felt that it wouldn’t be a film that I would enjoy. I felt it would be everything I have heard about Bollywood cinema, a lot of dancing, signing, and a very slow pace .To my surprise I really enjoyed this film. It was an engaging story told skillfully with an outstanding soundtrack by A.R. Rahman and stunning performances by its principal cast. I immediately connected and cared for the characters more so than some of the other films we have viewed in class. I enjoyed seeing Shekur and Shailia toghther , the two actors really made belive their relationship and love for one another.

I also like Ratman’s choice of casting of the two. Shekur looked like an ordinary man but his emotions throughout the film were very appealing. He stood up for what he believed in and fought for his wife and family throughtout the film and was a great hero for the film. Seeing him run after the men trying to burn his children during the riots, I feel every viewer was cheering him on . That was one of the most intense scenes I’ve seen in a while Shaila was gorgeous and was very impressive in her acting ability. The scene when her mother showed up at her doorstep was very emotional and believable.

Overall this was a great film and it opened my eyes to a new genre. One of the best films we have viewed in my opinion.

Dreams ( Akira Kurosawa) 1990

Dreams is a 1990 dream film based on actual dreams of the film's director, Akira Kurosawa at different points of his life. This film is one based more on visuals than verbal dialogue. In “Dreams the director Kurosawa has made his own psyche and inner feelings the subject of discussion. The vibrantly colorful dream sequences are eight separate segments of the film which all convey their own themes.

The first dream opens in a sun-shower in which a small boy defies the wish of a woman, who could be his mother, to remain at home during a day with this kind of weather. The reason she explains is that the Foxes hold their weddings in this weather and they don’t like anyone to see the ritual . Out of childish curiosity the boy hides behind a large tree in the nearby forest, where he witnesses the slow wedding procession of the kitsune. It was a very chilling image, I couldn’t help but think of another contemporary Dream film, Stanely Kubrick’s : Eyes Wide Shut where Tom Cruise’s character Bill invades a mansion party in Long Island which he finds inside is a large group of people wearing various robes and Venetian carnival masks watching a sexualized ritual involving women standing in a circle. Both outsider characters suffered the same kind of fate from their curiosity.

The boy is spotted by the foxes and runs for his life. Upon arriving home his mother tells him that a Fox has left a tanto knife at their house for the boy. She gives him the knife , basically telling him that he must kill himself. She then instructs him to find the Foxes and beg for forgiveness. Although said to be an impossible act the boy heads out in discovery of the Foxes in negotiation for his life.



The next dream, "Peach Orchard" a boy chases a girl into a razed peach orchard, and comes face-to-face with some traditional china dolls in colorfull and extravagant costume who come to life . Arranged on a tiered green hillside , they antagonize him for letting his family chop down the beloved peach trees. The shot of the dolls on the hillside was very breathtaking and almost looked like a painting itself. The army of spirits tell the boy that his family is cursed for destroying their peach trees. But the spirits sympathize with the boy’s sorrow and perform a ritual to allow him one last glimpse of peach blossoms. In this Dream sequence we are exposed to yet another theme throughout this film . Kurosawa depicts man’s adverse effect on nature and the possible fate of mankind on this planet.



The film's final dream was "Village of the Watermills": This dream could be described as final paradise for the wandering psyche . Throughout the film themes of man vs nature, pollution, adverse effects of technology ,and radiation are constant. While watching this piece I felt it was the final calm and peace of the bombardment of worrying themes .
Children play and pick flowers to lay on the grave of another aimless wanderer, as our ego-character reaches a village at peace with nature. An old man explains that the people of his village decided long ago to not take part in the polluting influence of modern technology and return to a happier society. This society was also very clean and free from any pollution and the landscape was beautiful. They have chosen spiritual health over convenience. He mentions that man has forgetten that we are just a part of nature.



Akira Kurosawa's Dreams is very beautiful to look at but I feel that the actual content could be to abstract and hard to follow. I felt that eight dreams were to many to get his messages across and through the others the audience gets lost and confused. If this film was a shorter running time I think I would have enjoyed it more. I get the fact that how some of the scenes were shot were to mimic a dream , but some ran way to long . I really enjoyed the first and last dream though but there were some in between that were nothing more that filler to me. I enjoyed the initial view of the Crows but I felt that it wasn’t needed at all upon a second viewing. I just found Scorsese to be really funny as Van Gough . This film is a visual masterpiece but could be seen as inconsistent and somewhat preachy at times.

La Mala Educacion ( Pedro Almodovar ) 2004

La Mala Educacion is the 2004 Spanish film from director Pedro Almodovar. Almodovar being one of the most successful Spanish directors of his generation,This international cinematic success follows two reunited school friends throughout a tale of Drug addiction, molestation in the Catholic Church, and effects of traumatic events in one’s childhood. The film begins in the 1980’s with the boys being in their mid to late twenties. Enrique Goded who is a Spanish filmmaker has resorted to scouring newspapers to find an idea for his next film.  In doing so, a young man who claims to be his childhood friend Ignacio shows up at his door. Enrique mentions that Ignacio was his first love and is very overjoyed to see him. Ignacio is an aspiring young actor who prefers to be called “Angel”. He brings with him a novel which he hopes Enrique will make into a film, with him playing the lead role. 

The novel recounts Enrique and Ignacio’s traumatic experiences of child molestation at a Catholic boys’ school in the 1960s. Enrique agrees to read the novel and the audience is thrown into the story. Enrique becomes more and more interested and captivated by the novel as it is a real life account of his childhood with his former love Ignocio. Enrique wants to adapt Ignacio's story into a film, but Ignacio's “Angel’s” condition is that he play the part of Zahara, the transsexual lead. Enrique doesn't agree with this as he feels that the Ignacio whom he loved and the Ignacio of today would be two different people.
During a flashback in the film, Ignacio allowed himself to be raped by his teacher Father Manolo so that the priest would not expel Enrique.

Manolo found the two boys together and discovered their romance, and wanted Ignacio all to himself. So  Enrique was expelled anyway, and for the past fifteen years Ignacio has been overcome with the thought of getting his revenge against the man who corrupted and abused him. The novel ends with Ignacio, now a drug addicted transvestite, returning to his former school to blackmail  Father Manolo.  Suspicious that Angel is not who he claims to be, Enrique pays a call on Ignacio’s mother and learns that Ignacio died four years ago.  It transpires that Angel is in fact his younger brother, Juan.  Curious to discover what Angel is after, Enrique agrees to make the film with Ángel playing the lead.   However, he changes the ending, so that Ignacio is murdered by the Catholic priests he is trying to blackmail. As the scene wraps , Angel is crying uncontrollably and is overcome with grief.


Enrique discovers a man in office on the movie set who is Manuel Berenguer. This man turns out to be the real life Father Manolo who has committed these horrendous acts against these boys. He tells Enrique that his endning to the film mirrors real life substantially as Ignacio did blackmail him. AS it turned out Manolo had turned his sights onto Ignocio’s younger brother Juan “Angel” and started a relationship with him. Angel and Father Manolo wanted to see Ignacio out of the picture so the two conspired to kill him with a lethal dose of heroin which Ignacio shot up , overdosed and died

Erique storms away from the two men not wanting to her Juan justifiy his actions and grievances about what he had done to his brother. Juan gives Enrique an letter from Ignacio that he was writing before he had passed away.





Some of the themes throughout Bad education that I felt were prominent were molestation in the Catholic Church, and effects of traumatic events in one’s childhood.

In the United States, half of the 4392 priests who were found to have been credibly accused of abusing minors were 35 years of age or younger at the time of the first instance of alleged abuse. Fewer than 7% of the priests were reported to have themselves been victims of physical, sexual or emotional abuse as children. Although 19% of the accused priests had alcohol or substance abuse problems, only 9% were reported to have been using drugs or alcohol during the alleged instances of abuse. Almost 70% of the abusive priests were ordained before 1970. This is a very taboo subject the Aldomor head on attacked in this film fearlessly. As a catholic myself some scenes made me feel kind of on edge , but this is a reality that we all have to accept. The scary thing that found out is that most of the time , not unlike the film these encounters are not reported and the Priests get away with these abuses. the Catholic hierarchy sometimes did not report the crimes to legal authorities and reassigned the offenders to other locations where they continued to have contact with minors, giving them the opportunity to continue their sexual abuse.




Another main theme in Bad education was Child molestation trama. One fact that I found that was young adults and older adolescents will describe flashbacks or dissociative symptoms. Some adolescents try to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs to compensate for flashbacks and major emotional disturbances. This associated to how Pedro Almodovor shot and edited the film , because it is filled with flashbacks which could serve as emotion triggers. Also Ignacio turned to drugs in his life as he was seen snorting cocaine early in the picture and even lost his life due to a hot dose of heroin.


Bad Education was excellent film with a multilayered narrative, and serious themes with a comedic undertone . One aspect of the film I particularly enjoyed was the structure in which it was presented to the audience. It wasn’t a boring linear narrative, I like how Pedro Almodovor took the audience in and out of the novel . It was a surprise to me at the scene where Ignacio gets killed by the priest, that the entire time it was the film being shot. I was never at anytime bored with the story line, and the pacing of the film was very fast, so I was on the edge of my seat throughout the viewing to see what would happen next. I also enjoyed García Bernal in his multiple roles in that film that requirer him to be innocent, desperate, and in the same breath I vicious and cold Femme Fatal.

Thumbs Up!!

"La Femme Nikita" ( Luc Besson ) 1990

Le Femme Nikita” Luc Besson 1990

Nikita is the 1990 French action thriller from director Luc Besson. “Nikita” is a slick combination of French film aesthetic mixed in with the action of a Hollywood summer blockbuster. Director Luc Besson known for such previous works such as the science-fiction film "Le Dernier Combat" which gave way to his stylized works of "Subway" and "The Big Blue". "La Femme Nikita" combines hip violence, with a contemporary story of power and love.




The film it begins as Nikita Taylor who is a teenage drug addict who participates in a robbery of a pharmacy owned the parents of a fellow junkie. The robbery goes bad and Nikitia, ruthlessly shoots a policeman. Nikita is arrested, tried, convicted of murder, and imprisoned for life, with parole considered after thirty years. She is then taken to jail and given a drug to simulate the death sentence. As she awakes she is met by a man who is recruiting her for the DGSE. Her trainer Amande transforms her from a degenerate drug addict to an efficient killer and fem me fatal; Amande was also rescued and recruited by the DGSE. Nikita is now very eqipt mentally and physically to her new job. She is also very attractive and seducing in her new role. Nikita is regularly used fore missions and contract killings by the department. She is getting tired of her life as a killer and seems to want more out of life. Nikita is constantly emotionally torn .Her assassin's career continues well, until an embassy document-theft goes horribly wrong, requiring the ruthless participation of 'Victor: The Cleaner' in destroying the mission's evidence and all corpses. The Cleaner is wounded and dies.Nikita abandons the Agency, the city of Paris, and her supermarket cashier boyfriend.

Nikita has a very true to life realistic tone throughout the entire film. The violence is hard and very severe. Although at some points the action are stylized such as the gun fight in the kitchen I was at the edge of my seat and really got into it and lost myself in the narrative. I found myself asking the questions, what goes through a contract killer’s mind? Do they have any empathy towards others? I felt Anne Parlliand really nailed this part because even asking these questions I felt like she was a very sympathetic and honorable protagonist. She couldn’t escape the life that she had gotten herself into. She was exceptional marksman and assassin, but she wanted nothing more than to lead a normal life. Even on her vacation to Venice with her boyfriend she is still assessable to the DGSE. I loved this scene in particular, because Nikita was trying to balance her fake life and romance with her boyfriend with her real life as a femme fatal. It make for and interesting and suspenseful scene with humorous undertones.



Anne Parilland as Nikitia really brought out every emotion as the femme fatal. I felt her performance was very powerful and she deserves every accolade that comes with it. Parilland brings a sense of empathy and caring to the character. I found myself feeling for her situation. This is an interesting point in itself. You feel a certain connection to a character who is doing the worst things that man could do, in her case murder for hire as well as in the beginning of the film being a drug addict who was caught robbing a store. She blows a cops head off after he had been pleading with her to let him go , without a second thought .It reminds me of something that Martin Scorsese said about the character of Tommy Desimone played by Joe Pesci in 1990 film Goodfellas. He found it interesting that after all the killings and bad things this guy did throughout the film, the audience still was connected to him and didn’t want to see him get hurt. I feel that Parilland had this same kind of effect on the audience. In reality she is a psychotic murdering woman and some how you find yourself feeling for her. The longer you get to know Nikita you find out how intelligent, feminine and caring she is even though she is committing such atrocious acts. At some point we forget that she murdered the cop in cold blood at the beginning of the film.

I feel this movie set in motion sexy tough women dominating in action films, which we see evidence of today. I kept thinking of films such as Kill Bill and Death Proof by direction Quentin Tarrentino . The character of The Bride in The Kill Bill series has a few resemblances to the character of Nikita. She was tough , sexy and still had a very admirable moral compass. Luc Besson I feel used this model In the Fifth Element with Mila Jovovich who’s character is very commanding as well as sexy and compassionate.







Luc Besson's initial inspiration of this story arc I really found interesting. It is the story of the murderer given a second chance at life – by being trained to be an assassin. It’s a very ironic choice and makes for an intriguing and action –packed film.I really enjoyed the stylized look of this film as well . It is described as the style of Cinema du Look which was a French film movement typified by highly stylized visuals in which the look was more important than the plot or realism. Directors such as Jean-Jacques Beineix (Diva, Betty Blue), and Leos Carax (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf) exemplified the scene.
Luc Besson's films certainly fit the glove of Cinema du Look, while Nikita is a stylized film it does incorporate an intricately plotted story arc, and a depth of feeling that goes far beyond the surface. It maintains drama and tension throughout and can even boast a delectable cameo appearance from the darling of French cinema Jeanne Moreau.

I particularly loved the first robbery scene it really set the tone for the film and was one of the greatest introductions of a protagonist I’ve seen in a while. It punches the audience right in the face and demands your attention. After this scene I really wanted to know who this girl was, her experiences, her thoughts and what she would do next. Anne Parilland as Nikitia was the best part of the film with her charming but deadly performance.