The Wedding Banquet Movie
My Score: 7.5/10
★★★☆☆
Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Winston Chao, May Chin, Mitchell Lichtenstein
Genre: Romance/Comedy/Drama/Gay Interest
Summary: A gay Taiwanese man, Wai-Tung, is happily living in Manhattan with his boyfriend. However, as he is getting older, his traditional parents are putting pressure on him to get married and have a family heir. To stop their harassment, his American boyfriend suggests he marries their Chinese friend. She’s poor and needs a green card to stay in America. Wai-Tung reluctantly agrees… but things get crazy when his parents come to stay with them and help with the wedding; not to mention that the woman actually really likes Wai-Tung.
Review: This movie was directed by the same guy who did Brokeback Mountain, though this movie is more of a comedy.
…Actually, I’m not really sure how to categorize this movie. It was amusing and entertaining – I really liked it – but it wasn’t funny enough to be a comedy, things didn’t go well enough to be a feel-good movie, and nothing really tragic happened so it wasn’t really a drama.
Anyway, if you get the chance, you should watch this movie. Not only is it entertaining, but it was fun to see all the different Chinese wedding traditions.
I liked the acting and the story. Even when the parents were being over-bearing, I couldn’t really dislike them. In fact, I couldn’t really dislike any of the characters no matter what stupid things they did. I also liked how all of the unfavorable things that happened were a result of the character’s actions. I mean, none of the characters were perfect and they each had some kind of consequence at the end.
There was quite a bit of English in the movie… understandably since one of the main characters was American. However, the English from the Taiwanese/Chinese characters was very in-character.
The one thing I didn’t understand was the closing scene. It feels like the pose is supposed to be significant or symbolic, but it was lost on me. As I looked it up, I found there were several interpretations to it. For instance, one being that it’s a pose in Tai-Chi that means you’re at peace, and another saying it was a way of showing surrender.
Warning: Very brief female nudity.
My Score: 7.5/10
Dramas Whoo! 
I cannot quite understand the enthusiasm people have about this film. I mean, I understand that it was a trend-setter for films which deal with homosexuality and culture, such as Mambo Italiano (Italian culture), Touch of Pink (Indian culture) or East Side Story (Latin American culture). To a certain extend it may have also paved the way for My Big Fat Greek Wedding while it also uses elements of Green Card. But I basically think that the films that followed were all a little bit better than The Wedding Banquet.
Oh and the pose is obviously taken from some kind of Asian sports, such as Kung-Fu (although it is not Kung-Fu) and it means that you are at ease with yourself and your world. So it obviously says that the father is okay with everything.
Hmmm that can only be “obvious” to sports fans then, haha.
As for the other part of your comment, you’re probably right. I haven’t seen those other films you mentioned. I’m more of an Asian film enthusiast than a gay film one, so I’ll take your word for it when you say there are better ones out there. I’ll try to check them out when I can.
You find information about these films on my website http://GayFilmMagazine.com
where to watch it?can’t find it –‘
It might be online somewhere, but I watched it on Netflix.