Film

Eat Drink Man Woman

Ang Lee's early masterpiece is really three love stories disguised as a family drama, all orbiting a father whose feelings come out through food rather than words. Watching it is like being invited to an elaborate, slightly tense Sunday dinner where everyone's secrets are the main course. Funny, sad, gorgeously shot — best for anyone who thinks meals are never just meals.

TMDb rating7.6

If you liked this

The Wedding Banquet1993

Ang Lee's previous film has the same warmth, the same interest in families hiding things from each other over dinner, and the same gentle comic timing underneath real heartache.

But Its farcical middle stretch is broader and sillier than anything in Eat Drink Man Woman.

The Wedding Banquet poster

Tampopo1985

A ramen-obsessed comedy that treats cooking with the same reverence and absurdity Lee does, cutting between a noodle quest and wildly funny vignettes about food and desire.

But It's more of an anthology than a single story, so it won't give you the same family throughline.

Tampopo poster

Big Night1996

Two immigrant brothers pour everything into one perfect Italian meal, and the film understands, like Lee's, that cooking is how people who can't say 'I love you' say it anyway.

But Smaller and shaggier in scope, with one long dinner scene doing most of the emotional heavy lifting.

Big Night poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi2011

Chu's perfectionism and his daughters' complicated inheritance of it become almost documentary-real here — same tension between mastery and letting go, minus the fiction.

A documentary about a real ninety-something sushi master and the son waiting, sometimes resentfully, to inherit his legacy — the actual father-chef relationship Lee's film only dramatizes.

But No plot, no romance subplots, just a hushed, meditative study of obsession and craft.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi poster
More like this (7)

Babette's Feast1987

A quietly devastating Danish film about a feast that becomes an act of grace and generosity, for anyone who wants the food-as-love idea taken to its most spiritual extreme.

But Slow, austere, and religious in tone — the opposite of Lee's bustle and comic energy.

Babette's Feast poster

The Joy Luck Club1993

Mothers and daughters, old-world expectations colliding with new lives, told with the same interest in generational silence that Lee brings to Chu and his three girls.

But More melodrama, less humour, and it juggles four family stories instead of one.

The Joy Luck Club poster

My Big Fat Greek Wedding2002

Lighter fare, but it shares the DNA of a loud, loving, food-obsessed family clashing gently with the modern world and new partners nobody quite approves of.

But Broad rom-com comedy where Lee's film has real ache underneath — don't expect the same depth.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding poster

Chef2014

Jon Favreau's ode to cooking as identity and reconciliation, with a father-son relationship rebuilt over food trucks instead of formal dinners.

But Sunnier and more crowd-pleasing, with none of the melancholy that runs under Lee's film.

Chef poster

A Simple Life2012no page yet

A Hong Kong drama about care, duty and food between an old man and the woman who's looked after him for decades — tender in the same unhurried, observant way.

But Much quieter and sadder, without the ensemble comedy or romantic subplots.

Soul Food1997no page yet

An African-American family drama built entirely around Sunday dinners holding three generations together, proving Lee's premise travels well across cultures.

But Leans harder into soap-opera plotting than Lee's more restrained, novelistic approach.

Life Is Sweet1991no page yet

Swap the exquisite banquets for grim caffs and it's the same idea: parents and grown children who love each other badly, expressed almost entirely through what's on the table.

Mike Leigh's shabby, hilarious, quietly devastating look at a working-class British family where food, ambition and disappointment are tangled together at every meal.

But Rougher, uglier, and far less polished — kitchen-sink realism instead of Lee's elegant, glossy Taipei.

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