Wednesday, May 28, 2014

What's Cooking?

12 comments:

  1. Question: Which family do you think was the most interesting and why? Question: Do you think it would have made a difference if we knew at the beginning or middle of the film that they were all living right by each other?

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    1. I thought it was kind of obvious they all lived fairly close together. Mrs. Avilla asks the father who owns the video store early on how he likes the neighborhood and the kids all go to the same school so I assumed they all in close proximity. I do not think it made that much of a difference they were living on the same corner so long as they lived relatively close.

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  2. personally for me, I liked the Avillas family. I have a large family and we tend to have a large Thanksgiving and sometimes we have ex-husbands show up. I was wondering if they would have the drama that we tend to have. I don't think it would have made a difference if we know that they lived on the same block. I think its awesome to see that they live one area but I have also seen where they have had multiple stories and they don't live near each other.

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  3. I liked the Latino family, I forget the last name but I though the family was big and there was a lot of stories within the family itself. They are also strong from the dad leaving to him coming back to a new guy entering and all with the new boyfriend being there and such I loved just watching how they dealt with it. Plus the mom is one strong woman!

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  4. My question was initially how important the setting (LA) was to the story. After discussing the responses in class I still have the concern that it's not necessary for them to all be neighbors. In the final moments in the movie Babel everything can be seen as connected and important and it wasn't necessary for them all to be in even the same country. To be fair this movie was done well but I think that the process of making the connections more complicated could have had a slightly more enjoyable pay-off (I for one threw my hands up in exasperation when I saw that they all lived on the same corner!)

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    1. You make a good point, Gentry. I agree, I felt there needed to be something "bigger" that happened after the gun shot. I was left with a feeling of wanting to know more. I knew they were all neighbors before we watched the movie since I had to do a little background research because of being on the audience panel and noticed the clues throughout, but I would've liked to see them become friends or get to know each other better. Other than that, I really liked the movie!

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    2. The close proximity of the families surprised me, but I think that to carry on much of a story line beyond that would have been too much because I don't think that was the point. I think the openness of the ending emphasizes that Thanksgiving is annual. The characters didn't have everything solved and next Thanksgiving might look very similar--everything is gradual. The shot moved specific people from one house to another, but I think once everybody knows everybody the story becomes more about the group and less about the individual families.

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    3. I liked that in the end of What's Cooking. I enjoyed seeing all these different families with different ethnic backgrounds and different family traditions all be connected in the end. I also think that all four families living in LA made more since than anywhere else in the US because of LA's large diversity.

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    4. After our conversations in class, some felt that the setting of LA really contributed to the theme of the movie, and I just didnt see that. I think this could have taken place in any diverse city and the same would have held true for our characters. I also felt that somehow the fact that they were all neighbors helped and some felt it didnt.

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  5. Audience Panel Questions- What is the significance/importance of food preparation in this film? What does it tell the audience about the characters/families?

    I found on rottentomatoes.com several people claiming the food plays a more important role in this film than the characters. Do you agree? Why or why not?

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    1. I wouldnt agree that the food was more important than the characters, but did feel that it was a very important part of this film. All of the family dynamics and struggles we saw were somehow incorporated into this Thanksgiving dinner, but was just a means of getting the message across like we saw in many of the other films.

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  6. The preparation shows how important culture is to each family and how it is portrayed through each person. It also shows how culture through each generation of the families is changing. For example the Nguyen's family burnt the turkey they made and ordered KFC. The youngest boy was ok and happy with KFC.

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