The Wedding Banquet - Movie Review Example

The Wedding Banquet Summary The Wedding banquet is a film released in 1993 which talks about the marriage of a gay Taiwanese immigrant, Winston Chao with his female Chinese tenant in order to attain mutual benefit for each other. Winston maintains a gay relationship with an American man, and in order to cover up his sexuality, he deceives his parents and agrees to marry a Chinese woman. His plans collapse when his parents end up in America to plan his wedding banquet. The director of this movie is Ang Lee and actors portrayed in the movies as lead characters are Winston Chao, May Chin, Ah Lei Gua, Sihung Lung and Mitchell Lichtenstein. The wedding banquet is the first attempt by Ang lee to discuss gay relationship through a movie .Interestingly, Lee also makes an appearance in the movies as a guest attending the wedding. The movie is an intense comedy in the first half, and then it reveals the complexities of the relationship burdened on each other. The character Winston Chao, and Simon his lover were living a convenient life style, until his parents demand a marriage in an expectation of an offspring .This movie displays very intense emotional sequences as well as riotously funny movements every audience will expect in a movie .The movie being the debut of actor Winston Chao, does not depict any flaws or chinks in his acting skill. “The Wedding Banquet never becomes bogged down by its own seriousness. Lee manages to keep the production buoyant by including scenes that are often riotously funny” (Berardinell.1993). Interestingly, in this movie all the characters possess their own unique worthiness, which gives the audience a splendid visual treat. Plot of the movie The plot of the movie is the life of a Taiwanese immigrant Winston Chao who is a gay .He is in a stable relationship with an American man Simon, and defers his parents about his sexuality and agrees to marry Wei – Wei a Chinese woman. This Chinese woman is his tenant who is desperate to earn a green card, as she is facing immediate deportation charges. The parents of Winston Chao is expecting grand child and want their son to lead a normal marriage life like others. Everything works out simple until the parents of Winston arrives in US to plan his wedding banquet The movie in the initial stage looks like a full blown comedy but later comes out different when perception of the sexual and cultural choices of the young generation is portrayed dominantly. This movie seems like a romantic comedy in the beginning, but there is a strong dramatic undertone surrounding this movie which the audience finds out towards the other half unravels. The main highlight of the deceptive marriage is the sumptuous banquet after which the Wei - Wei seduces the intoxicated Winston and get herself pregnant. On finding about pregnancy, Simon gets upset and fights with Winston, and eventually their relationship starts to detoriate. In the moment of tension and rage, Winston let his mother know about his sexual identity and his mother knowing this request her son to hide this from his father. Later in the movie, Winston’s father finds out about his son’s relationship with Simon and with half mind go forward to have an amicable relationship with Simon. In the end the father and mother of Winston leave for their homeland leaving Winston, Wei – Wei and Simon to sort out things by themselves. Background and theme of the story The movie “The Wedding Banquet” is written by three writers namely; Ang Lee, Neil Peng and James Schamus.Ang Lee is the writer and director of the movie and is a Taiwanese American movie director with versatility and dynamic talent. He has directed this movie with a varied nature for which has won Academy Award and lot of acclamation worldwide. Neil peng is another writer who contributed efficiently to the movie as a screenplay writer. James Shcamus is also a screenwriter with numerous acclamations and awards, and is also a producer and CEO of Motion Picture Company called Focus Features. He also acts as a member of the Jury for New York City Film festival which screens children movies. The theme behind this story is purely gayism, where a same sex relationship is shared between the key characters of the movie, Winston and Simon .The movie explains the way in which the young generation has molded their sexual orientation which their parents find difficulty in accepting. The key characters being gay, experience restrictions from parents and find ways to deceive their parents .To convincing the parents one of the gay partner enact to be a heterosexual and marry a Chinese woman in this process. The film displays an ambitious technique, and the director has given enough justice to the movie to project an emotional pitch. As per,(Cannon,2011)“The script is designed to work from a single vantage point, that of a Taiwanese director. Only by comprehending the people, the culture and the way in which they behave can Lee modulate each scene such that his cast approaches the brink of parody without tumbling over”. Movies in Parallel with the Wedding Banquet The movies in question to be compared and contrasted with the movie “The Wedding Banquet” are “The Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Dirty Dancing. The movie “The Big Fat Greek Wedding” is all about the love affair of a Greek woman Toula with an Anglo-Saxon American man called Ian Miller. Toula lives in a very orthodox Greek family and having crossed her 30s, her parents are intimidating her to marry a Greek man to lead on their family lineage. Gradually in the movie ,Toula’s family find out the relationship of their daughter with a non – Greek man .And Toula’s father Gus demands Ian to convert to Greek orthodox ,to make himself for the marriage with his daughter. In the end, the couple gets married in Greek style and later gives birth to a daughter who is bestowed with rights to marry a person of her choice. Dirty Dancing is a romantic movie released in 1987, where a rich girl Jennifer Gray falls in love with a dance instructor named Johnny castle who works for a resort. Jennifer being extremely attracted to the sexy dancing receives a brief lesson from Johnny .As the movie progresses the Johnny’s dancer partner Penny gets pregnant by her deceptive boyfriend and Jennifer to get her abortioned receives money from her father. Due to the health problem of Penny, Jennifer goes forward to take her place as the dancing partner of Johnny and take lessons from him. Later Jennifer’s father perceives that Johnny is the reason for penny’s pregnancy and this lead s to complication in love story. However, in the end the wrong conceptions are uncovered and all come in amicable terms. Comparison of “The Wedding Banquet” with the other two movies Here when one compare both the movies it can be observed that main theme underlying both these movies is romance. The plot of the movie revolves around couples who share romance with each other and desperately seeks union overcoming all sufferings. Moreover both these movies shows the authoritative attitude of the orthodox parents and their adamant attitude in accepting the love of their children These movies also depict the struggling undergone by the parents of the respective couples in accepting the love of their children ,which goes against their culture and heritage. Also it can be observed in both the movies the differences in the mental attitude of young generation, when it comes to important issues like marriage and love affairs. The movie “The Wedding Banquet” is about a gay couple attempting to save their relationship against the will of one of the couple’s parent’s .And in the movie “The Dirty Dancing” the rich girl Jennifer is fighting with her Dad to save her relationship with Johnny the dance instructor. In “The Wedding Banquet one of the couple Winston is rich and in the Movie” The Dirty Dancing” the girl Jennifer is wealthy. In both the movies one of the couple take drastic measure to save their love affair and also be rebellious to parents to be honest to with their love interest. “ Twenty years ago in the movie Dirty Dancing, a sexy, sweaty, gyrating Patrick Swayze danced into the hearts of a generation of teenage girls. The movie “The Wedding Banquet also captured the hearts of many when it was releases in 1993”(Snider,2007). Contrast of movie The Wedding Banquet with the other two movies The movie “The Wedding Banquet” has a focus on gay relationship whereas as the other two movie is about heterosexual relationship. In the movie “The Wedding Banquet” there exists a triangle relationship with two gay men and women. Whereas in the other two movies there is only one couple involved in the love affair. The movie “ The Wedding Banquet” has Chinese family involved, while Greek family is depicted in the movie “The Big Fat Greek Wedding”. In the movie “The Dirty Dancing” there is a presence of American family and all the key characters involved are Americans. In the movie “The Wedding Banquet”, the gay man Winston is deceiving the parents and giving wrong idea as to his sexuality, while in the movie “The Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “The Dirty Dancing” there is no deception involved. The director of the movie “The Wedding Banquet” is a Chinese man, whereas other two movies have American directors. In the movie “The wedding Banquet” Chinese culture and heritage is projected and in movie “The Big Fat Greek Wedding” Greek culture is the central focus. In the movie “The wedding Banquet” the end of is skeptical and audience is left to imagine the climax , whereas in “The Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “The Dirt Dancing” the end is shown as positive and joyful. The Director’s Message through the Movie “The Wedding Banquet” The director Ang Lee, had made this movie with a complete orientation on gay relationship which was gaining importance in 1990s.In this movie the key character Winston, the Taiwanese immigrant and the American man Simon, is sharing a gay relationship with each other. Here the hindrance is emerging from the Winston’s family who are orthodox, and to cover up things from his family Winston unwillingly marries Chinese women. It is very obvious here that, society plays a big hand in intimidating people do thing they are other wise reluctant in doing. The director wants to show the audience that, freedom is a rare thing in orthodox society, and parents are very conservative when it comes to the future of their children. Normally, it may be difficult for the parents of older generation to accept such sexual orientation and social norms practiced by new generation. However the parents make exceptions at times to impart happiness and comfort to children by understanding their choices and values. The author is portraying that, future generation has their own concepts and ideas about their life partner and they mostly get caught between parents and lover at many times. These kinds of conservative thoughts of parents can only affect the children in a negative way and relationship by coercion results in utter failure. The adults of future generation are educated ,and they definitely want to practice freedom and liberty when in it comes to their life .The director is displaying through the movie that a very adamant attitude from parents can only result in chaos and revenge in children rather than trust and confidence. References Berardinelli , James. "The Wedding Banquet." www.reelviews.net. Cybernex, 1993. Web. 19 Apr 2011. . Cannon, Damian. "The Wedding Banquet." www.1worldfilms.com. Concrete Publications, 1998. Web. 19 Apr 2011. . Snider, Mike. "Dirty Dancing: Babys out of the corner." www.usatoday.com. USA Today, 24-04-2007. Web. 19 Apr 2011. . Read More