The Wedding Banquet (1993) [Film Review]

The Wedding Banquet; or, It All Stays in the Family

     The Wang Hsi Zhi school emphasizes harmony and nature. Your Wang style of calligraphy reflects a beautiful structure combined with unrefined purity. Bei Qu Yi's poem and your writing flow naturally. That art is not often attained and every stroke is perfect. That shows your steadiness. It's a sign of longevity.

Continuing my review series of Ang Lee’s movies, this time I’m focusing on a 1993 romantic comedy film entitled The Wedding Banquet. This story is yet another, after Pushing Hands, unusual take on the Chinese family issues, which launched Lee’s fame in America.

Release Info

Directed by: Ang Lee Starring: Winston Chao, May Chin, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Sihun Lung, Gua Ah-leh

Language: Mandarin, English Original Title: 喜宴 Runtime: 106 min

 

Plot

Meet Wai-Tung Gao (Winston Chao). He is a prosperous businessman with an American citizenship. His Taiwanese parents, Mr and Mrs Gao (Sihung Lung and Gua Ah-leh), are fruitlessly urging Wai-Tung to get married. The problem is that Wai-Tung is living together with his friend Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) as a gay couple and he’s afraid to tell the parents. In the meantime, Wai-Tung’s tenant, Wei-Wei (May Chin), finds herself out of job and in need of a green card. Simon comes up with an idea to accommodate all parties: Wai-Tung will have a sham marriage with Wei-Wei. In this way, she will get to stay in the U.S. and the parents will let Wai-Tung off the hook. What can possibly go wrong?

 

Never enough of Hongbao

On the basis of the outlined synopsis, it seems readily noticeable that The Wedding Banquet served as primary source of influence for Fake Couple (2015) drama (which I highly recommend as well). However, it does not have the same degree of crazy playfulness like the television series. There are many funny moments in The Wedding Banquet indeed, but they are intermingled with bittersweet moments of family members lying through their teeth in order not to hurt one another.

 

Apparently, the idea for the movie was suggested to Ang Lee by a Taiwanese screenwriter Neil Peng who heard about a similar story happening to his friend. In consequence, the script went through various drafts in Chinese as well as English only to materialise as a motion picture that mixes Mandarin and English in its dialogue track. Apparently, it’s been quite an issue for American audiences to watch a subtitled movie set in America, but The Wedding Banquet ultimately became a box office success (outdoing even Jurassic Park in the ratio of returns instead of total revenue).

 

The Wedding Banquet is not so much a comedy of mistakes than a careful observation of family relations. In an almost documentary-like fashion, Ang Lee presents us with the wedding party that is the ultimate culmination of Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei’s fraud as well as Mr and Mrs Gao’s long-time dream. Although this is just fiction, we find ourselves cheering for all the characters to find a proper solution to their problems (which they do, in a way).

 

Speaking about performances, all of the main leads were perfectly chosen for their roles. Looking at the movie from the modern perspective, it actually launched the successful careers of Winston Chao, May Chin, and Mitchell Lichtenstein. The chemistry between them was so great that I wish they could do one more movie together. Of course, the performances of Sihung Lung and Gua Ah-leh cannot go unnoticed. Even though Gua Ah-leh steals the show as the mother, Sihung Lung still does great with the material he’s given here. On top of that, this is the only movie in which we can hear him speak some English.

 

Recommendations

As in the case of Pushing Hands, I safely recommend The Wedding Banquet. It is a very engaging story with bright characters and a meaningful ending. I did not regret a minute of it. If the gay theme somehow puts you off, then do not worry. This movie is not about gender politics but a genuine, unpronounced love between family members which provides a room for reconciliation between Eastern and Western values.

Overall score: 9/10