Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Raven-1969 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.

Tim Kidner This is the earliest film from the respected and great Taiwanese director Ang Lee that seems to be available in the U.K - even then it seems only on VHS or as a Korean import (which is how I got mine.)Why that is so is beyond belief and credibility - The Wedding Banquet is a warm, universal and fine film about what Lee does best - people and relationships. Cross cultures and cross sexualities add dynamism and colour and more than hint of later films such as The Ice Harvest and (of course) Brokeback Mountain.You don't have to be gay, or otherwise, or anything in particular, other than being human to appreciate the story and its characters - a 20 something gay Taiwanese man living with his boyfriend in New York and whose far-away mother is spending all her time setting him up with a possible wife. The obvious and gleeful scenario set-up when for the sake of convenience a Chinese girl that he knows is after a Green card Mother (and ex Commander with high-blood pressure Father) decide to visit for 'the $30,000 wedding banquet', that friends and relatives back home have donated for this gift of a lifetime, that the film's title is dedicated to.This, we juicily anticipate and we are definitely not disappointed, except with a master story teller that we obviously have here, the twists are unexpected and superbly done; so naturally that even the predictable parts are done with flair and of course, aren't so straightforward.So many lesser films on this subject are flaunted at us seemingly daily - here is a finely crafted movie, but one that, perhaps thankfully, is lighter and more humorous than some of Lee's later works. I won't carp on (again) about its relative unavailability but would say that if you want to see more of Lee's work, specially his 'pre-fame' era and want a humane, touching and often funny film, grab it with both hands if you ever get the chance.

sc8031 Here Ang Lee makes a film about Chinese identity in the United States and the ostracized place of gay marriage in traditional Asian values. The centerpiece of the film is the wedding reception itself, showcasing a traditional Chinese/Taiwanese wedding between a secretly gay groom and his bride. This is an early-nineties film, so there are a lot of strange purple-ish values to the tones, and the fashions/costumes worn by some of the characters are rather amusingly dated.The plot: Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) is a gay, first-generation American-Chinese living in Manhattan with his lover, Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein). Wai-Tung's parents seem to be of traditional Taiwanese stock and are pressuring their son to get married so he can hurry up and provide an heir for them. The problem is that Wai-Tung is an in-the-closet homosexual and is also their only child. At first they try to set him up on blind dates with Chinese girls, so he tells them he has a fiancée. So when they come to visit him, he attempts to hide his homosexuality and arranges a fake wedding with Wei-Wei, a financially troubled female tenant in a building he rents out.The demeanor of the acts notably shift throughout the film. The movie starts out as a somewhat zany, light comedy and then segues into melancholy drama when the conservative Chinese parents test the rigors of the gay son's relationship. But I couldn't really understand Wai-Tung: what did he and Simon do for a living? Where did his (pre-marriage scheme) relationship with Wei-Wei develop from and how does he own her building? Some of this stuff was kinda... too convenient in my mind. But then again, maybe I just haven't seen the movie recently enough. On the surface the film appears to be about gay culture contrasted against Chinese culture, but like a lot of Ang Lee films it is not about what it appears to be. And by this I do not mean his films have some extraordinary depth that we do not initially notice, but that they simply present capable stories within a variety of locales and aesthetics. The main reason I do not think it is realistically about gay/traditional Chinese culture is because of the ending. It feels like a Spielberg film script, and to some degree I believe Ang Lee is the Spielberg of Chinese-American cinema. The film is entertaining, but it has too many moments of unbelievable schmaltz or attempts at cheesy emotional affections.Ang Lee does provide a nice window into Taiwanese culture abroad and raises questions about gay identity in contrast to traditional Asian values. To be honest, I have not seen too many films on the subject (and probably none which can be considered "mainstream") so for this I can give Ang Lee props. It is only really flawed by the convenience of plot details, which makes me suspect the conclusion was completely crafted fiction and not taken from experience or real life.

ththla The Wedding Banquet was the first Ang Lee film that I watched. I remember I was about 10 or 11 years old when I watched it. At that time, I did not understand the movie at all. However, as I grow older, I watched it again and I realized what a masterpiece that Ang Lee had accomplished. Coming from the same background, as Taiwanese immigrant to the United States, I can certainly relate many of issues with the protagonist Wai-Tung. My parents are exactly like Wai-Tung's parents. They have high expectation of the son and carry on the family name is the most important thing. Ang Lee did a very good job on depicting the traditional father figure in Taiwanese society. My father, very much like Wai-Tung's, is a very serious person. To him everything has to be done straight and upright. My mother on the other hand is very sentimental. She would just cry like Wai-Tung's mother in the movie. Taiwanese mothers always care for their son so much that they literally do everything for their son, just like how Wai-Tung's mother sets up a blind date for him. My parents are so serious that sometimes if I joke about me liking a man they would get upset. Therefore, I really can understand how Wai-Tung has to hide his secret for such a long time in the movie.I like how Ang Lee uses Wai-Tung to represent Taiwan; Wei-Wei to represent China, and Simon to represent the US. In the movie, there is one scene where Wei-Wei wears a red dress in the air port picking up Wai-Tung's parents, I just could not help myself but laugh at the expression that Wai-Tung's dad gives when he sees Wei-Wei. He must think her as another communist he fought in the Chinese civil war. Another fascinating thing about this movie is that I watched it again in my film study class and even the movie is in mandarin, my classmates seem to understand the messages and laugh about them. I guess it is the magic of the movie. It really can transcend time and languages. Overall, Wedding Banquet has became my all time favorite of all the Ang Lee films.