Like Water for Chocolate

In early twentieth-century Mexico, Tita falls in love with Pedro, but her mother refuses to let them marry. Family custom dictates that the youngest daughter must remain single and care for her mother until the older woman dies. To stay near the woman he loves, Pedro instead marries Tita's sister Rosaura. Living under the same roof, Tita and Pedro cannot openly express what they feel, so Tita pours her emotions into the food she prepares, and the dishes she serves begin to affect everyone who eats them — sometimes guests in ways no one expects.

Alfonso Arau directed the film, his first as a director, and also produced it. Laura Esquivel wrote the screenplay, adapting her own novel about love and cooking. Lumi Cavazos plays Tita, Marco Leonardi is Pedro, Regina Torné is Mamá Elena, and Yareli Arizmendi is Rosaura, among a credited cast of 28.

Shot in Mexico on a budget of about two million dollars, the film has earned roughly twenty-two million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its cost. Audiences rate it 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb from more than eighteen thousand votes, and 7.3 out of 10 on TMDB from a smaller number of votes, while critics give it 7.6 out of 10 from 48 reviews, placing its critical standing somewhat above its audience scores. Arau next directed A Walk in the Clouds, released in 1995.