The Wedding Banquet (1993)

Original title

囍宴

Directed by

Ang Lee

Genre

drama film, romantic comedy, LGBTQ-related film

Country

Taiwan, United States

Runtime

1h 43m

Rated

R

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 295 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A gay Taiwanese man in New York marries a Chinese woman to get her a green card and hide his sexuality from his traditional parents. When his parents fly in to throw a grand wedding banquet, he must juggle the lie with his real partner nearby.

comictensewarmchaoticpoignantfarce-liketender

What happens

The Wedding Banquet is a 1993 romantic comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Ang Lee. The story concerns a gay Taiwanese immigrant man (Winston Chao, in his film debut) who marries a mainland Chinese woman (May Chin) to placate his parents (Gua Ah-leh and Lung Sihung) and get her a green card. His plan backfires when his parents arrive in the United States to plan his wedding banquet and he has to hide the truth of his gay partner (Mitchell Lichtenstein). It was a co-production of Lee's Good Machine production company, and the Taiwanese Central Motion Picture Corporation. Lee's second feature film and his first to get a theatrical release in the United States, The Wedding Banquet premiered at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Bear. It was both a critical and commercial success and won five Golden Horse Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. It received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign-Language Film, as well as six Independent Spirit Award nominations. Together with Pushing Hands (1991) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), all showing the Confucian family at risk, and all starring the Taiwanese actor Lung Sihung, The Wedding Banquet forms what has been called Lee's "Father Knows Best" trilogy. In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A remake of the same name was released on April 18, 2025. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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