The Wedding Banquet 💒
Happy Monday! Did you have a wonderful weekend? I hope you did. No new newsletter on Thursday because, you know, Christmas. So just check out some movies here or here.
🍿 Today’s movie: The Wedding Banquet’s perfectly imperfect family
Today’s movie is iconic director Ang Lee’s second film The Wedding Banquet (1994), which would earn him the first of many Oscar nominations. Here’s what it’s about:
Wai-Tung (Winston Chao), a bisexual Taiwanese immigrant, and his American boyfriend Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) are living in domestic bliss in New York City. In an effort to get his conservative parents off his back, Simon suggests Wai-Tung get married to Wei-Wei (May Chin)—in turn she gets a green card. Things get complicated when Wai-Tung’s parents (Gua Ah-leh and Sihung Lung) show up on their doorstep for the “wedding.” [Trailer]
Why you should watch it: Let’s talk about facts: Simon is the perfect boyfriend. Smart. Check. Emotionally available. Check. Can cook. Check. Great biceps. Double check. Why do I bring this up? The Wedding Banquet thrives largely because of Ang Lee’s ability to make any character likable. Not that that is a prerequisite to a movie being good, but being empathetic to every character’s motivation is essential to understanding the very complicated emotions involved—and the unwieldy plot.
The movie begins as a delightful and hilarious comedy of misunderstandings that benefits from Ang Lee’s talent for understated yet impactful character interactions. As the movie shifts to drama and then melodrama in its second half, those same interactions become even more profound. In the end, as all the characters move towards an uncertain future, you realize one thing: you are going to miss hanging out with them. And that’s what makes it great.
Hug your loved ones a little bit tighter this week—whether physically or virtually. I wish you a happy and healthy holiday.
See you next week —
Karl