The Wedding Banquet – Hsi Yen (1993)

Directed by: Ang Lee | 106 minutes | drama, comedy, romance | Actors: Dion Briney, Jeanne Kuo Chang, Winston Chao, Paul Chen, May Chin, Chung-Wei Chou, Yun Chung, Ho-Mean Fu, Michael Gaston, Ah Lei Gua, Jeffrey Howard, Theresa Hou, Yung-Teh Hsu, Jean Hu, Albert Huang, Neal Huff, Anthony Ingoglia, Eddie Johns, Thomas Koo, Chih Kuan, Robert Larenquent, Neal Lee, Mason C. Lee, Dean Li, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Jennifer Lin, Sihung Lung

“I thought all Chinese are nerds with calculators, but what I see here…” A native American guest at Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei’s wedding party is amazed. He sees scenes that are hard to describe. Drunk, boisterous partiers and traditional but bland kissing games. Little remains of the image of the always so controlled and neat Chinese after a night of partying.

Probably if Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei had actually had a love affair, the party would have been more manageable for them. Because recognizing the lips of the new husband blindfolded would have been a breeze. Or you could laugh at the fact that your family and friends rush into your hotel room and force you to undress, or else they’ll wait all night for it to happen under loud cheers.

There is a great contrast between the perception of the gay and yuppie Wai-Tung and his parents from Taiwan. This is outlined in a number of scenes. His mother sends him tapes full of meaningless tidbits and keeps urging him to get married soon. To make it easier for him, she pays various mediation agencies. When they come to visit, the house where Wai-Tung lives with Simon undergoes a true metamorphosis. Modern paintings are replaced by calligraphed Chinese wisdom. The bulletin board filled with tickets from hip clubs and photos that dear Wai-Tung and Simon is removed and in its place is a traditional photo of Wai-Tung and his new fiancée Wei-Wei.

Director Ang Lee, who himself comes from Taiwan and has lived in the United States for years, knows how to portray the two worlds in which he belongs in this tragic comedy. Because the initially good plan to conclude a marriage of convenience that benefits everyone, naturally turns out differently. As the film progresses with the dramatic climax of the exuberant banquet, the main characters realize just like the viewer that the well-intentioned situation is getting out of hand. There is hardly any way back to a normal, sustainable situation.

Perhaps Ang Lee wants to make it clear to the viewer that a little white lie isn’t so bad, as long as everyone is okay with it. He also shows that life in a split is no longer tenable at a certain point. Wai-Tung is happy with his life, but when his parents interfere, he can’t say that his life is so good. Not at all about his way of filling in his life.

The family values ​​that are important to his parents, such as putting offspring on the earth and respect for hierarchy, are not relevant to their son. As painful as that is, it makes for a beautiful film. What the viewer initially dismisses as old and outdated, turns out to be a way of survival for the parents and also deserves a certain respect. In the hands of another director, the situation would not have been so delicately outlined and could have gone flat. Now it is precisely a painfully correct filming of real emotions and of people who sometimes feel so cornered that they make crazy jumps.