The films Bulworth and Eat Drink Man Woman can both be related to the larger image of the art of filmmaking in the 1990s. The trailer for Eat Drink Man Woman, with creatively blended dishes gracing almost every scene, reinforces the conclusion drawn by Janet Maslin in her 1994 New York Times review, that this film “…warmly integrates food and humor….” The trailer for Bulworth brings to the audience’s attention the varied settings that the scenes are filmed in, with Bulworth standing authoritatively on a political stage, only to turn that respected arena into a corrupted scene of money-hungry, immoral politicians, that still manages to engage the viewers. External events played a role in shaping both films, as in the 1990s, the personal lives of politicians began to influence legislation to a greater degree than in previous decades, and the transforming gender stratification that some cultures attempted to battle.

Eat Drink Man Woman is a mainstream film, as the story was relatively easy to comprehend, and the plot was definitively completed by the end of the movie. In addition, it does not attack any social groups in an effort to bring reform. Conforming with mainstream films, it mildly affirms the gender roles of the Taiwanese culture. This foreign film, set in Taipei as this 1994 Washington Post review of the movie by Hal Hinson states, was certainly globalized, as it travelled around the world to audiences in America. Reaffirming the traditional roles of women staying in the home and giving up on their careers to care for their fathers or husbands, was not only a message for audiences in Taiwan, but created this image of domestic happiness to American women as well. The following image of Jia-Jen in her classroom erasing a board with utterly despondent feelings, eloquently expresses her despair of ever finding a man to love her. This sentiment is all encompassing for Jia-Jen, as only upon finding love does she give up her plain garments for bright colors, symbolizing her sudden entry into happiness. 

The following scene when Jia-Chien cooks for her ex-boyfriend, while voicing her unhappiness at being unable to cook at home, demonstrates this idea, as Jia-Chien is only seen to be contented when she cooks, rather than at her successful job.

However, as the opening scene of the film also suggests, cooking is a central aspect of the movie that adds a graceful touch to the cinematic display (Hinson). Additionally, as is evident from this image wherein Jia-Chien wears a suit, while her sisters are garbed in dresses, Jia-Chien is the only sister to have a prosperous career of the three sisters, and mysteriously remains single while her less affluent sisters both find happy relationships. This illustrates that Eat Drink Man Woman argues the point that women cannot have both a flourishing career and be involved in a happy relationship.

Conversely, Bulworth embodies strong elements of unconventional cinema, as the story is delivered in an altogether new style, and the subject for the film is extremely politically challenging. Although it required a large amount of money to film, as this Washington Post review by Stephen Hunter in 1998 indicates, this film was produced, written, directed, and starred in, by Warren Beatty. This immense personal involvement in a film is not only an aspect of the Auteurs cinematic movement, but is also a strong feature of unconventional films. Bulworth was a blockbuster film, having gained a large audience around the world, and thus garnered a sizeable profit. Unlike Eat Drink Man Woman, Bulworth does not reinforce a gender role, but rather attacks an accepted political institution. Although some critics found this movie to be “patently offensive” towards African Americans, the true emotion that Bulworth seeks to express is the realization that politics is driven by money, and is therefore unfair (Hunter). Yet, this end is partly achieved at the expense of gender stratifying women, as the stereotypes of African American women are upheld as being “primarily sexual, custodial, and nurturant,” as the article intimates entitled “Why Bulworth is Bullfull” in the fourth volume and twenty-first issue of the International Bulletin of Political Psychology journal. However, as this image from the film suggests, African Americans and Caucasians are portrayed on the same plane, as Nina stand alongside Bulworth as his equal.

Still, Bulworth is a movie that lures audience members in with pop culture features such as rap, then ultimately urges viewers to consider how their own political representatives are a part of a system bent upon acquiring wealth. This scene with Bulworth on the news perfectly illustrates the blend between humorous uses of modern culture that is startlingly depicted in music and political jargon that is aimed directly at the public.

As Janet Maslin states in a 1998 New York Times review of the film, “political puppeteering [is viewed] with an all-purpose jaundiced eye,” that immediately captivates audiences with its blunt delivery.

These two films both speak to the film culture of the 1990s. Bulworth can be easily classified as a blockbuster film, due to its large budget and the cast of stars that it contained. On the other hand, Eat Drink Man Woman was a movie that came during the auteurs cinematic movement, with the director laying a heavy hand on each scene. Their dissimilarities range from being a foreign or American film, and focusing on issues of the society to problems within one family. At the same time, they abound in similarities, as they both embody clear elements of unconventional filmmaking. Each film, in its own way, contributes to the artistry of cinema in the 1990s.