Captivating movie !

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

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!

A gay couple stage a fake marriage to throw off the Chinese parents of one of the men. Sort of a Cage Aux Folles that does the real thing.Who was this movie aimed at? Gay people don't like reliving all the trauma of their early life. No matter how "pro-gay" this movie was--- and it was!--once the sex takes place at the wedding you are unable to enjoy the film. You try to keep liking it but can't--dreading the next turn of events. It activates a PTSD syndrome in any normal gay person.Most straight people would find this hard to understand. You have to be gay to understand it.The production values are great the actors great---just a flawed story...It is much more of a social issue story than a comedy and even misses the mark there--the sex ruins it.It is a pity---RECOMMEND???

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.

A successful young professional Asian man in a long term relationship with his American male partner is worried about the imminent visit of his parents, who he fears will not accept his homosexuality. To hide the truth, the illegal Chinese housekeeper is presented as the fiancé. Believing the charade would only be played for the duration of the parents' visit, all agreed on the plan. Little did anyone know that the old Chinese Tradition required a boastful wedding banquet, all paid and insisted upon by an old family friend. Unexpected complications seem to end in disaster, yet there is nothing that can ever stop true love. A bitter-sweet ending is testimony to our changing world and the growing acceptance of all people, regardless of ethnicity or sexual orientation.This film not only deals with its gay theme in a matter-of-fact way, but there also never is any mention of the fact that the main characters are interracial. This should never matter, however it seems that our society adds another stigma when someone enters an interracial relationship. Unusual and even shocking to contemporary society, The Wedding Banquet will appear free of any issues in another 10 or 20 years. For a European audience the "big whoop" may already be illusive.Believing that exotic cultures are least likely to part with traditional social norms can be quite wrong. Family bonds and strong character are valued above all, with sexual orientation not even being considered at all. The elderly are given too little credit for their capacity to understand life and social issues. This film gives strength to the argument that all people are quite willing and able to live peacefully without passing judgment on others.