Film: Eat Drink Man Woman.

It's always interesting to watch films from other cultures, especially comedies. Why comedies, you may ask? Well, it's because I learn something about what that culture considers funny. That isn't to say I'll find it funny myself, which was the case with "Eat Drink Man Woman." It struck me as much more of a humanist drama than any kind of comedy I'd ever seen, including black.

The film centers on a moderately dysfunctional family - dad and his three daughters, mom having passed on some time ago. Dad is an aging chef in a famous Chinese restaurant and has lost his sense of smell (Devestating for a cook), while each of the daughters have their own lives - the oldest as a financial planner for an airline consortium, the middle as a sexually repressed schoolteacher who pines for a lost man and seems to be the prime candidate to take care of dad when he retires, and the youngest, who just wants to enjoy life.

The film starts off a bit slow, but then picks up as each person's life in turn is upended by events unplanned or unexpected. Each segment explores not only the impact of the events on that person's life, but how everybody else is affected by it as well.

This isn't to say that the film is all work and no play - the occasional laugh is played up, especially one particular event near the end of the film - but for the most part it is about the emotional growth and development of all the lead characters. Certain storylines suffer for having so much happening so quickly, but for the most part the story comes through well, and the acting and directing is very good.

As a comedy, it's mehtacular. As a drama about familial love that persists through all trials, it's a winner. 4 out of 5 netflix stars, Thane says "see it!"