I read the reviews, how very different perceptions

I really liked the film and therefore I wanted to ger a clear idea of the main themes that the book and the film stand for. What I found was a big array of different perceptions about what the film was about. Myself, I am of the opinion that the older one was a wise master of life that was trying to give some of her beautiful wisdom to the other two characters, not so much because she could provide that 'society outsider' perspective but because life put her on the road to meet and change the life of the other two. I think the older woman didn't even need the job as a cook but this job was just the excuse for her getting close to the chef (or cook, whatever) so that he would actually be the one that gained from his own act of kindness. The girl also finds out that she has to do what is in her heart and to enjoy her freedom and her limited time on earth. She also learns that if she really loves something, she has to let it go so that it (or her) can also be free like her bird was at the end. Anyway, the deeper message comes at the end, when she simply resumes the main buddhist ideas that we are all one and we should forget the self and go with the flow, life's and nature's flow and to be surprised with everything that happens to us each and every day because in a way, it all happens for a reason and the path that brought these things to us, started a long time ago, on their own, on their path to meet us, at the exact time and place where we should have met them, known them, love them or lost them.