Cheap The Wedding Banquet (Video) (Winston Chao, May Chin) (Ang Lee) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Wedding Banquet

You Have To See This
A Taiwanese man, living in the U.S with his partner, is quite happy until a certain problem arises: his parents have decided to visit him and his girlfriend. Why is this a problem? Well, for one thing, he doesn't have a girlfriend. He has a boyfriend, who is also white. Some people just insist on making their lives complex don't they? And so with the assistance of his friend - a Taiwanese girl who's an illegal immigrant, he attempts to solve two problems at once. If he marries her, then she can stay in America and he can keep up the pretense to his parents that he's straight. Simple, huh? Well no. The parents arrive in time for the all-important wedding banquet, and our hero finds himself doing something to his new wife that he never thought was possible. From the director of Eat Drink Man Woman this is a lovely film that is really quite funny and yet delivers serious drama, with more than competant acting.

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Poignant comedy-drama from Ang Lee
"The Wedding Banquet" is a rather moving film by Ang Lee that starts out as a comedy and moves on to become an insightful study of the complex relationship that is family.

Ting Gao [Winston Chao] is a thirtysomething Taiwanese immigrant who lives in New York, where he has a real estate business. He seems to be heavily subsidized by his wealthy family back home. His Mom and Dad are constantly pushing him to get married. Why can he not grant his father's fondest wish to become a grandfather? Ting can't do his parents' long distance bidding because he happens to be gay. He lives happily with a nice guy named Simon [Mitchell Lichtenstein]. The very American and liberated Simon is wise enough to see that cultural differences prevent his lover from admitting the truth. The deception is no problem until the folks announce their imminent arrival in New York. The boys come up with a plan. Ting will marry their friend Wei-Wei [May Chin], who happens to need a green card anyway. The parents will arrive, Wei-Wei and Ting will marry in a civil ceremony, the family will leave, and life will return to normal. All goes according to plan until an old family acquaintance shows up and insists on giving the bride and groom a lavish, old-fashioned Chinese wedding banquet. The plan then hits some serious snags.

"The Wedding Banquet" is actually a Taiwanese movie shot on location in America. At least half of it is in Chinese, which will irritate anyone who despises subtitles. For everyone else, though, the movie will be a treat. It is more than an interesting study of cultural differences. It is great portrait of a remarkable family, one in which love ultimately redeems everyone, even if truth and reality get rearranged in the process.

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Great Film, Even in Repeat Servings!!
I watched this film the other day for the first time in about 10 years and it still touched my heart. As a Chinese growing up in the U.S, I can understand how cross-cultural differences can really take a toll on one's life. Ang Lee did a great job because he is truly one of the few directors out there who I feel puts a lot of real emphasis on character development. The film did a great job of focusing on people's individual expectations, and the means by which people would go in order to live up to those of their parents'.

I was lucky enough to talk to Ang Lee at a film discussion last year. I told him that the Wedding Banquet was one of my favorite films of all time, and he seemed appreciative of that, because he felt he took a lot of care in developing the essence of character conflict and tension. This is definitely a movie worth adding to one's collection.