Eat, Drink, anything but Tortilla Soup

Right off the bat, I full heartedly enjoyed Eat Drink Man Woman more than Tortilla Soup.

Here's why:

1. Food

This is the only element I feel that was well executed in both movies. The shots of the food and the importance of family united around a table were always portrayed well. You always get to see the father preparing food, whether it be for the daughter or for the younger future step-daughter's lunch and the elements of the traditional meals in their respective cultures are both properly represented. For example, dishes that stuck out to me in Eat Drink were when Chu was carving out a design on the sides of the water melon, the dragon made out of colorful veggies at one of the family dinners, and even as simple as when Jia- Jen brings Chu his "mountain tea" towards the end of the movie. I was so interested in the name and the little pot Jia-Jen brought it in, I was yelling at the screen "Why would you want water Chu?! Give me the tea!"
In Tortilla Soup, the banana leaf brush scene is always iconic. I also enjoyed the beginning scene when all of the food gets destroyed at Martin's work. I thought it was really interesting seeing all of the baked apples being remade into the little martini glass desserts. Although, I thought the food was more decadent looking in Eat Drink just because it seemed like there were more plates on the table.
Overall, both movies did a decent job.


2. The Core Narrative/ Cinematic choices

Both movies took place in relatively the same time period, so film style was pretty basic Hollywood style shooting for both films (shot reverse shot, soft, warm lighting, good variety of wide, medium and close shots) BUT, the actors, tone of narrative, and dialogue SCREAMED shitty sit com in Tortilla Soup. All of the sisters and giggly, smiley, and relatively dull in comparison to Eat Drink. The character development and traits are so much more fleshed out in Eat Drink. For example, the oldest sister is supposed to be a religious prude who is charred by her last relationship years ago. WHY would she be enticed by the love letters SO much so that she would go to the coach and publicly make out with him? I watched Tortilla Soup first, and after watching Eat Drink and how Jia-Jen goes the podium during yard time and screams at everyone in anger about the letters makes more sense. It also makes more sense for her to figure out it was a student before confronting Coach Chai. While watching Tortilla Soup, I thought to myself "What student is able to make up believable love poems?" and my question was easily answered in Eat Drink when Jia -Jen hears the love song lyrics in the hallway. Everything is more believable in Eat Drink. From Li Kai being torn up about Jia- Ning's friend to getting knocked up; AND Chu knocking up Jin-Rong! Why would they cut that out from Tortilla Soup!? Choices like that make Tortilla Soup garbage compared to Eat Drink... and Tortilla soup was the re-make! Ridiculous!


3. The Characters

The difference in character that stuck out most to me was mostly the supporting roles. The sisters in both movies have the same basic core values and character arc, different things just happen to them, like Jia- Ning becoming pregnant and Maribel is becoming...  more annoying. The character of the Chai is very differently portrayed in both movies. In Eat Drink, he's a bit goofy but has an air of cool about him as he rides off into the crowd on his bike. He's innocent; that's the soul I get from that character. In Tortilla Soup, he's borderline mentally challenged. If that was his character, he nailed it, but I don't think that was supposed to be the character. Tortilla Soup morphed charmingly goofy to blatantly stupid.  For example, the way he continuously talks about "training" Letty and her untoned upper arms is more aggressively idiotic of a request than Chai's inviting for Jia-Jen to go on a team outing with him. It's less intrusive than commenting on Letty's body and then nagging her to let him "help" train her body. Other moments like Li Kai and Jia- Ning's slow growing relationship and Coach Chai being baptized I feel like are important details that Tortilla Soup should not have cut out. What the heck Tortilla Soup! The movie was produced by Starz not Hallmark!

Overall, I loved seeing Joe from Princess Diaries being a strong Mexican man, but Tortilla Soup is t.r.a.s.h. compared to Eat Drink Man Woman.