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.

Plot

Gao Wai-Tung is a Gay Taiwanese immigrant happily living in Manhattan with his gay Jewish partner Simon. He has not come out to his traditional parents who live back in Taiwan. Since he's in his late 20s, his parents have become eager to see him married with a child to continue the family line. When his parents hire a dating service, Wai-Tung and Simon invent impossible demands that the candidate date must be Chinese, an opera singer, 5'9" in height, have two PhDs, and speak five languages. To their shock, the service actually locates a 5'8" Chinese woman who meets all but one of their qualifications, having only a single PhD. She is very gracious when Wai-Tung explains his dilemma, as she too is hiding a relationship with a white man from her parents.

Awards