Monday, May 01, 2006

The Wedding Banque

The Wedding Banquet (Chinese: 喜宴)
Wai-tun Gao (Winston Chao) and Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) are a happy gay couple living in Manhattan. Wai-tun is in his late 20s, so his Taiwanese parents (Sihung Lung and Ah-Leh Gua) are eager to see him get married and have a child. The early part of the movie is madcap comedy. When Wai-tun's parents hire a dating service he and Simon stall for time by inventing impossible demands. Chinese opera singers are always men, so they demand an opera singer and add that she must be very tall. The service actually locates a 5'9" Chinese woman who sings Western opera. She is very gracious when Wai-tun explains his dilemma. In order to satisfy his parents and present them with a grandchild, he assures them he is going to be happily married soon.

Surprisingly, his parents decide to come to America from Taiwan, together with US$30,000, to hold a magnificent wedding ceremony for their son. Wai-tun dares not tell his parents about his homosexuality, because his father has just recovered from a heart attack, and goes through with the wedding. The heartbreak his mother experiences at the courthouse wedding prepares the story for a shift to drama. The only way to atone for the disgraceful wedding is a magnificent wedding banquet. Among many traditional customs, the blindfolded bride tries to identify her new husband with a kiss on the cheek. Laughter erupts when she chooses an eight-year-old boy. After this wedding of convenience, the bride Wei-wei (May Chin), an artist who cannot pay her rent, forces Wai-tun to have sex with her that night, hoping that he would become straight so she can really become a part of his family. Simon is very upset about the wedding, and his relationship with Wai-tun begins to deteriorate.

Later, Wai-tun learns that Wei-wei gets pregnant. Being angry with her, Wai-tun tells his mother the truth, which shocks his mother. Before the relationship between Wai-tun and Simon gets worse, Wai-tun's father tells Simon secretly that he knows about their relationship, and, appreciating the considerable sacrifices he made for his biological son, takes Simon as his son as well. Simon accepts the Hongbao from Wai-tun's father, which according to Chinese tradition, is a form of admitting the persons to be their children's partners, and promises not to tell any one else that the father knows this: for the sake of family, the father just can't confess it to the public. Later Wei-wei decides to give birth to the baby, and Simon is willing to be the other father of the baby. Wai-tun's parents leave later, with the odd family reconciled.

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