Director Ang Lee’s second feature film is a romantic comedy about Wai-Tung Gao (Winston Chao), a Taiwanese immigrant to the USA who lives happily with his partner Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) in Manhattan. Despite having achieved success as a real estate investor, Wai-Tung faces pressure from his parents, who wonder why he hasn’t yet gotten married and attempt to set him up with women. To appease them, Wai-Tung resolves to marry Wei-Wei (May Chin), a struggling Chinese artist who needs a green card. But what begins as a convenient lie evolves into an elaborate deception when the parents decide to fly to America for the wedding. Both farcical and touching, Lee’s film is a landmark of LGBTQ+ cinema and anticipates later debates over gay marriage.
The Wedding Banquet
Ang Lee
1993
Taiwan, US
106 min
Catford Mews
12 June
Saturday
6:00pm
Additional Information
Preceded by
Military Dog
Dir. Ping-Wen Wang | Taiwan | 2019 | 11 min
Introduction by Christopher Brown, University of Sussex.
With support from the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan.