Eat Drink Man Woman

           “Eat Drink Man Woman” is a Taiwanese film that displays the interactions of a father with his three unmarried daughters, together with the contraction of values between different generations in Chinese culture. It presents to us how challengeable a father would be to express his love towards his daughters, especially with the loss of mother figure in the family. Besides the relationships and responsibilities between the father and daughters, the movie also portrays people’s perspectives towards romantic relationships and how they struggle in order to find true love. Here, I would like to discuss about the personalities of the main characters in the movie using Big Five personality theory and also talk about how their characteristics affect their views towards family and romantic relationships.

            Being the eldest daughter in the family, Jia Jen, who is a secondary education school teacher, always thinks that she has the biggest responsibilities in taking care of the family. She plays the role as a mother and takes care of her younger sisters since their mother passed away when they were young. She is also willing and planning to look after her father even when she gets married, although in the end she leaves the house when she marries a volleyball coach. As she is the eldest child in the family and also plays the figure of a mother among the sisters, she becomes low agreeableness and manipulative. She does not tolerate when she gets questioned about her relationship problems and would throw tantrum when others disobey or disagree with her, especially towards her sisters. Besides, she is quite manipulative. As we can see from the movie, she requests her partner to become a Christian after they get married. Jia Jen also shows high level of neuroticism as she is emotionally unstable and experiences lots of mood swings. Afraid of being judged by others as an old lady as she did not date with any guys in her life, Jia Jen made up stories that she was in love with a guy but being abandoned by him during university time. Her sense of inferiority leads her to suffer with anxiety but being competitive and ego, she still pretends that she does not mind to remain single. Her emotions outburst when she finds out she is being played by her students with love letters, yet in the end, she finds her love one. Feeling happy and relief that she finally gets rid of being single, she moves out from the house and leaves the responsibilities of taking care of her father to her sister as she has been taking all the responsibilities since young.

            The second daughter, Jia Chien, is a very independent airline executive. In the beginning, she does not show good relationship with her father and is the most rebellious child in the family. However, it is she who stays in the end to look after her father and she nearly gives up her opportunity to go oversea and expand her career. Jia Chien is very open-minded. This characteristic leads her to become outstanding in her workplace and obtain high achievement as compared to her siblings because she manages to see many things further than others and willing to challenge herself. She also accepts the fact that her father is in love with her neighbours although she was shocked. Yet, due to openness, she does not believe the traditional idea of getting married. She stays intimacy with men but does not claim them as her lovers. They are more like friends to her where she could discuss her problems with them when she feels stress and depressed. She is also high conscientiousness and thoughtfulness. She organizes her jobs well and always stays up late to finish her job. She also cares about her father in very unspoken way due to her rebellious personality. She takes her responsibility of being a daughter and is willing to give up the opportunity to get promoted when she suspects her father is sick. Although she is the one who starts the thought of leaving the house among the sisters, deep inside her heart, family is the thing that she cares the most. What she needs the most is her father’s approval towards her abilities, and this shows that her father plays a very important role in her life.

            Jia Ning, the youngest daughter in the family is a college student. She is an extrovert where she can easily communicate with people and maintain good relationships with them. Being the youngest one, she takes the least responsibilities and is being treated less strictly by the father. As she is still young, she has low conscientiousness and poor impulse control. She is driven by impulse and acts without thinking about the consequences. For example, she thinks that her friend does not like her boyfriend, so she approaches the guy and talks bad about her friends, which leads to the breakup of the couple. After she is in relationship with that guy, she gets pregnant and immediately both of them get married without acknowledging her father. Soon as she gets married, she becomes the first one who leaves the family and the father. Although her impulsivity does not lead her to any negative consequences and yet she ends up having a happy family with her father’s blessings, she should change her immature behaviours and think before she acts. 

            The father in the movie, Mr Chu, is a master chef of Chinese cuisine. Being a widower, he does not have the accompaniment of a partner and with his own efforts, he raises his three children who are different gender with him. Being an introvert, he does not know how to interact with his children, especially when they get older. Therefore, he came out with the idea of family dinner in each Sunday to maintain the relationship. He is willing to take a whole day to prepare the luxury meal even though the family could not finish the dishes in the end, with the hope that his children could enjoy delicious food after tiring days. He is also implicit in expressing his feelings and thoughts, thus results in the gap between him and his children. As a Chinese man, he is quite open-minded. He accepts the sudden marriage of his two daughters, which is not normal for a father, and is also having a relationship with a young single mother who is similar age as his daughters. Long period of loneliness leads him to longing for love and he is courage enough to announce his relationship with his young partner to others and hope for their blessings. His announcement is like a boom to the family, and also to the audiences as all of us do not expect that he is actually in love with a married woman and causes her divorce. These explain why he cares about the daughter of his lover, not only as a grandfather, but also a father. His obedience towards the mother of his lover is due to the respect of a son-in-law towards mother-in-law, not the romantic love that his daughters expected.  His silence acceptance towards his daughters’ marriage might not only because he loves them, it might also because he is guilty about having a relationship with their friend and wishing for their blessings. 

            These characters have made the movie to become interesting and meaningful. It is quite reflective as it makes me wondering how would I treat my parents when they get older. Would I stay to accomplish my duty as a daughter, or would I leave in order to pursue my dream? Currently, I do not have an answer for this question, but I would always remind myself, parents are the one who introduce me to this new world. They are and will always be my backup no matter how far I go. I should always remember their sacrifice and hardship in raising me up, and accomplish my responsibilities of being a daughter wherever I have the chance.