The Wedding Banquet

The Wedding Banquet is a 1993 romantic comedy film directed by Ang Lee and starring Winston Chao, May Chin, Gua Ah-leh, Sihung Lung, and Mitchell Lichtenstein. The screenplay concerns a gay Taiwanese immigrant man who marries a mainland Chinese woman to placate his parents and get her a green card. Wai-Tung Gao and Simon are a happy gay couple living in Manhattan. Wai-Tung is in his late 20s, so his traditionally minded parents are eager to see him get married and have a child in order to continue the family line. At the time two men could not get legally married to one another in New York State. When Wai-Tung's parents hire a dating service, he and Simon stall for time by inventing numerous impossible demands. They demand an opera singer and add that she must be 5'9", have two PhDs, and speak five languages. The service actually locates a 5'8" Chinese woman who sings Western opera, speaks five languages and has a single PhD. She is very gracious when Wai-Tung explains his dilemma, as she too is hiding a relationship (with a white man). At Simon's insistence, Wai-Tung decides to marry one of his tenants, Wei-Wei, a penniless artist from mainland China in need of a green card. Besides helping Wei-Wei, Simon and Wai-Tung hope that this will placate Wai-Tung's parents. Before Wai-Tung's parents arrive, Simon tells Wei-Wei everything she needs to know about Wai-Tung's habits, body, and lifestyle; and the three take down all homosexual-related content from their house and replace it with traditional Chinese scrolls. Mr. and Mrs. Gao announce they will visit from Taiwan, bringing gifts and US$30,000 to hold an extravagant wedding for their son; believing he is involved with a high-class rich woman. Wai-Tung dares not tell his parents the truth, because his father (a retired officer in the Chinese Nationalist Army) has just recovered from a stroke. As a part of the lie, Wai-Tung introduces Simon as his landlord. A day after Wai-Tung's parents arrive, he announces that Wei-Wei and he was planning to get their marriage certificate at city hall. However, the heartbreak his mother experiences at the courthouse wedding (both at the arrangement and at the discovery of her son's relation with an underclass woman) prepares the story for a shift to drama. The only way to atone for the disgraceful wedding is a magnificent wedding banquet, offered by Mr. Gao's former driver in the army who now owns a restaurant and reception hall. After the banquet, several relatives come up to their hotel room for an unsolicited after-party and they demand that the newlyweds get in bed naked before they all leave. This leads to a drunk Wai-Tung being taken advantage of by an also drunk Wei-Wei who becomes pregnant. Simon is extremely upset when he finds out and his relationship with Wai-Tung begins to deteriorate.