The Wedding Banquet (1993)

Sometimes we obtain what we desire, but not the happiness and contentment we crave. This is the case for Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei. The odd couple, a woman seeking a green card and a gay man in an open relationship seeking a tax credit and his pushy traditional Chinese parents off his back, plan a marriage of convenience. At their wacky New York wedding banquet, a happy-go-lucky and openly erotic mish mash of Chinese and American traditions, Wei-Wei and Wai-Tung discover their souls crave something less tangible than what they first desired.One thing I love about Ang Lee films are the withering looks. Piercing eyes that could bust a bag of bricks at a glance. You'll see a few such glances here. They send shivers down your spine. The looks are Lee's unique and enthralling brand. They are peppered throughout his films, but sparingly. Another characteristic of Lee, one of my favorite directors, is depth. Do not make the mistake of judging this film by its cheesy cover. Lee has plenty of surprises and emotional shocks up his sleeves. The characters and themes come at you from a variety of perspectives and opposites; young and old, men and women, straight and otherwise, Chinese and American, and more. Another thing Lee is a master at is passion. His characters manage to melt your heart no matter who they are, kind or cruel. Enjoy each scene as it comes, for even at the start of his career, Lee is mesmerizing and magical. Despite the passage of 25 years since this film first emerged and my unabashed awe of Lee, it was my first time seeing this film.

One of Ang Lee's early movies focuses on cross-cultural relationships. In this case, a gay Taiwanese man in New York is in a relationship with a white man from the US, but has to hide it at the news that his traditional-minded parents are coming to town, and so he decides to get married to a Chinese woman. Complications arise when his parents throw a big party for him and the bride."Xǐyàn" ("The Wedding Banquet" in English) is the second installment of Lee's Father Knows Best trilogy focusing on the Confucian family at risk (up to now I've only seen "Eat Drink Man Woman", but I hope to see "Pushing Hands"). These movies show that, despite the traditions that the family has followed, the younger generation wishes to follow its own path. It manages to be both funny and serious without being silly or preachy. An excellent movie (not that I would expect less from Lee). Lee focused again on LGBT relations with "Brokeback Mountain".PS: Mitchell Lichtenstein is Roy Lichtenstein's son. May Chin eventually retired from acting and got elected to political office in Taiwan representing a party that focuses on the rights of the indigenous Taiwanese.

To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord (Winston Chao) and a female tenant (May Chin) agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of hand.Elisabetta Marino argued that "Lee's creative process and his final choice of two languages, Mandarin Chinese and English, for the movie are in themselves symptomatic of his wish to reach a peaceful coexistence between apparently irreconcilable cultures, without conferring the leading role on either of them." This is interesting, because I found myself not really relying on the subtitles, but seeing the humanity and emotion transcending the language, essentially making this more than a "foreign" film.Marino says the film suggests that there can be a reconciliation between Eastern and western cultures, unlike Amy Tan's novels where the cultural differences are portrayed as irreconcilable. I can certainly see that. At the very least, the gay couple is an Asian-Caucasian mix, and there seems nothing unusual about it. We also see how seamlessly a woman who cannot speak English is married by a justice of the peace... assimilation works!

This wonderful work talks more about family than gay-life. it can be separated into 2 parts .the preceding one is full of humor and unrolls the story calmly but not laggardly ,and the latter one would make you heart heavy but without losing hope. Western people maybe can not experience the impotent rejection of young Chinese toward the tumultuous Chinese wedding customs, or understand how devout the filial piety stands in the spirits of every Chinese people. maybe only Chinese can know why Mrs. GAO burst into tears when she heard the engine roaring of the car carrying her son and pregnant daughter-in-law, and why Mr. GAO gave a red-paper-pack of money as a birthday gift to "his another son" Simon after attacked by apoplexy which cause by knowing his son a gay man, and still asked Simon to assist himself in pretending unaware of anything.It's a fabulous movie that makes me watch it again and again and again. when I was still a childlike teenager, I thought Ang Lee's movies were all so boring that i fell in asleep every time. And when I grown a little up and more sensitive but still childish, I found all his films so amazing that I can't help holding tears in my eyes at that moment.