gavin6942 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!

Jackson Booth-Millard Directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi), this was a Chinese and English language film I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I hoped the positive ratings from critics and this placement would be deserved when I watched it. Basically Taiwanese-American Wai-Tung Gao (Winston Chao) and Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) are a gay couple who have been living happily in Manhattan for ten years, his traditional parents do not know and are eager to see him get married and have a child to continue the family line. Wai-Tung's parents have hired a dating agency to find a woman suitable to marry him, to give them time he and Simon make impossible demands for the "perfect" woman, including that she is an opera singer, 5'9" tall, have two PhD's and speak five languages. The agency actually find a very close match, a Chinese woman 5'8" tall, sings Western opera, speaks five languages and has a single PhD, Wai-Tung and Simon explain their dilemma to the woman, she is gracious, and admits she is hiding a relationship (with a Caucasian man). At Simon's insistence, Wai-Tung decides to get married to penniless artist Wei- Wei (May Chin) from mainland China, one of his tenants who needs a green card, they will be helping her and satisfying Wai-Tung's parents. Mr. Gao (Sihung Lung) and Mrs. Gao (Ah-Leh Gua / Ya-Lei Kuei) want to hold an extravagant wedding for their son, so they decide to fly from Taiwan to Manhattan, bringing 30,000 U.S. dollars, Wai-Tung will not dare tell his parents the truth, especially as his father, a retired officer from the Chinese Nationalist Army, has recently recovered from a stroke, so the wedding will go ahead. However Wai-Tung's mother is heartbroken when the couple decide to have a simple and disgraceful courthouse wedding, to make up for this they prepare a magnificent wedding banquet, with many guests attending and the married couple dressed in proper suit and dress. During the evening Wai-Tung gets very drunk, Wei-Wei takes advantage of the situation, she rapes a barely conscious Wai-Tung, and becomes pregnant with his child. Mr. Gao suffers another stroke and is put in hospital, Wai-Tung has an argument with both Wei-Wei and Simon, and in the heat of the moment admits the truth to his mother, she is shocked, but she tells him not to tell his father, however when Mr. Gao recovers he reveals more than he had been letting on, he secretly tells Simon he knew about his relationship with his son. An appointment is made for Wei- Wei to have an abortion, but she decides to keep the baby, and asks Simon to stay as another father to the child, the parents prepare to leave, Mr. Gao has formed a good bond with his new daughter-in-law and accepts Simon being with Wai-Tung, they situation ends fairly happily and the unconventional three-person family are left to sort themselves out. Also starring Neal Huff as Steve, Jeffrey Howard as Street Musician, Anthony "Iggy" Ingoglia as Restaurant Manager, Dion Birney as Andrew and Ang Lee as Banquet Guest. The performances are all well done, the direction is sharp, and it is a simple idea done brilliantly well, a gay man hiding his sexuality and getting married for convenience, I found it dramatic in some places as well as very funny, it makes you laugh with the mix of eastern and western culture clashes, and the hilarity from the plan that backfires, it is a clever and most satisfying comedy. It was nominated the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Very good!

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.

rzajac I think it's fascinating that the earnings ratio for this flick was so high; this perhaps makes it one of the very best to point to when debunking the "big budget = better" assumptions among many film buffs.Loved it. It hits on almost all the key indicators: Visually beautiful, storyline solid as a rock, fine character development, generally fine acting, great music, well paced and edited, and timely themes with an overarching message which is both age-old and timeless: When worlds collide, you might discover that the experience can be one of delight rather than dread. Love, open-mindedness, and open-heartedness are operative factors capable of cracking time-honored, trans-generational assumptions.As if all this weren't enough, there's even a tender little bone thrown to the romantically inclined among us who feel that abortion is not a life-affirming option. If you're a pro-lifer--a *real* pro-lifer, not one who feels that life is sacred only until birth--watch this movie and have a hankie at hand.I guess I should flesh in my summary line allegation of early sluggishness. Not quite sure what it was. Maybe I actually had to sort of recover my sensibilities and let this movie unwind at its own pace. It might have had something to do with the male lead not being a trained actor, learning his chops as the filming proceeded. Not quite sure. You may find the first third (or so) of the film to be a bit slow. But hang with it: It's well, *well* worth the time and suspension of disbelief invested!One last observation: I live in Taiwan, so I found the capturing and capsuling of Chinese culture to be well done and nicely modulated (not over the top) for western audiences. I hope westerners out there can savor that.