El banquete de boda

I suppose The Wedding Banquet could be considered a romantic comedy. It is so in the best senses of both words: romantic without being sappy, and comedic without being ridiculous. The characters are vibrant and interesting without being cliches. Ang Lee has not created a great movie, simply a perfect one.

The Wedding Banquet is a truly inspiring and cross-culturally challenging film. It touches on many issues/themes which have never been combined before in one movie: Taiwanese Americans vs. Chinese Americans, Asian American families, old school parents vs. younger generation(s), multi-racial couples, gay couples, gay Asian Americans, immigrants, pride, family values and love.

And… while I found the ending of this movie somewhat unrealistic (I'll let other viewers decide) I also found the film challenging and optimistic (which is where my realism takes over).

You should watch this movie if you are… Asian… gay… Asian AND gay… or simply want to learn something about another culture. You might be surprised!

Props to Ang Lee for creating a unique opportunity to look into two very distinct and different cultures at the same time: Asian American and gays in the early 90s.

The Wedding Banquet is marketed as a comedy, but it is more than that. Closer in plot and style to Green Card than The Birdcage it examines the personal consequences of deceit. The comedy is there of course, but so is much tenderness and pain as a marriage of convenience between a gay man and a woman deportee unravels. Like Green Card which had similar plotlines, the "obvious" resolutions do not appear so likely as the film progresses which adds to its attractiveness.

I recommend it highly.

Ang Lee with infinite wisdom seems to be saving the best part of this film for last. Acceptance is the underlying theme of this movie, which I recently watched for the second time. I saw the film when it was originally released in 1993. At that time, it seemed to have been breaking ground for tolerance from the straight world toward gays, in general.

Ang Lee is one of the best film directors working these days. This is a small film in comparison to what came afterward. The story of how parents in a conservative society view their children that are "different" is always an interesting idea. Those same parents produced that child; the mere idea they will turn their backs to a son who is living openly as a gay man is a complex problem, at best.

Different cultures react differently, as is the case in this film. While the parents are not completely taken over by the way they discover their son has turned out to be, they go along with the flow, never condemning the son, his partner, or the young woman who is pretending to be, what she is not.

The acting is good in general, but it has to be the actor who plays the father, who ultimately wins one's heart. His culture goes back for centuries and he is won by his son's lover because he sees how kind, decent and honest he really is.

It's better never to judge, or so it seems that Ang Lee is telling us.

Ang Lee already was a masterful director before his three triumphs Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (for which he was ROBBED of Oscars by the likes of Mel Gibson and Steven Soderburg). Maybe children might be a little young for this, but it is indeed a "family film" like no other. And the new "daughter-in-law" is hilarious (although you might think she goes too far in one important-to-the-plot scene). The funniest scene is the courthouse nuptials, and the banquet itself makes you wish you were there.

After ten years, this film still does not seem dated at all, which I thought it would. The only thing missing is a HOT love scene with Winston Chao and Mitchell Lichtenstein, who looks far younger than his age. I know if I was in that situation, I'd want to blow off some steam! The best part is the just before finale, the father has a great quiet scene with one of the other cast members. Have some tissues on hand for the ending.

It's best to own a copy of this film, that way you won't be tempted to watch it every time it comes on "Bravo". It's an absolute delight, one of the best of the decade, definitely in the Top 50 of best comedies of all time, at least.