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The Wedding Banquet

 

Wai Tung ...... Winston Chao

Wei Wei ....... May Chin

Simon ......... Mitchell Lichtenstein

Mr. Gao ....... Sihung Lung

Mrs. Gao ...... Ah-Leh Gua  

       Goldwyn presents a film directed by Ang Lee. Produced by Lee, Ted Hope and James Schamus. Written by Lee, Neil Peng and Schamus. Photographed by Jong Lin. Edited by Tim Squyres. Music by Mader. Running time: 112 minutes. No MPAA rating.  

            This is a "gay" movie, rated R, including some male-to-male kissing (without explicit sex) and one scene of under-the-covers heterosexual intercourse. You will have to decide whether you can watch this sort of movie despite its spiritual climate. However, if you want to understand modern culture through film (or any other medium) you need to have some concept of its prevailing attitude toward homosexuality. 

            The leading character is a Chinese-American gay man, Wai, living with Simon, his white lover, in New York. His parents, having fled the mainland to Taiwan with General Chiang, inundate Wang with marriage prospects, not knowing that he is gay. Wang's father, now in poor health, wants a grandchild more than anything else, and only a suitable marriage for Wang can bring that about. Wang naturally resists. When his mother sends him an application to a "singles club" for a marriage prospect, he dutifully fills out the form, making demands he considers impossible of fulfillment: for example, the prospect must have two doctorates. The club comes up with a prospect: a professional opera singer with, alas, only one doctorate. Wang meets with her, but their dinner together becomes disaster when they meet people who know of his other relationships. 

            But there is Wei Wei, a woman artist who lives in a building owned by Wai. She knows he is gay but hopes, somehow, that he will reciprocate her affection. He is kind to her, accepting her art work as payment of rent, though he does not understand it. He tries, within economic limits, to make her living situation fairly tolerable. But she has lost her job, has no green card, and fears she will be sent back to the China mainland. 

            Wai bites the bullet. By marrying Wei Wei, he can clear up her immigration problem and get his parents off his back. So he invites his parents to New York for the wedding. The wedding itself is perfunctory, before a justice of the peace, and the parents are quite humiliated by the lack of ceremony. Their spirits are lifted when an old friend of the family, now a successful restauranteur, offers to stage an elaborate wedding banquet for the supposed happy couple. 

            The banquet is indeed lavish and boisterous. There is much drinking, and it goes into the night. To Wai's distress, the couple must spend the night together in the hotel, though Wai longs for Simon. After Wai and Wei-Wei go up to their room, their friends "invade" the honeymoon suite and carouse for some additional time. They promise to leave after one more performance: the couple must get under the bedcovers together and remove their clothes item by item until the onlookers are assured that they are both completely naked. That is done, and the guests do leave.  

            Wei Wei then gropes Wai (who is somewhat drunk, but still conscious) under the covers. Feeling his physical response, she remarks, "I thought you told me you could not be aroused by women?" He has no answer. What happens next would be considered "marital rape" if the sexes were reversed, but the film presents it as a tender bit of exploration and affection. And the long-awaited grandchild is conceived. 

            The rest of the film deals with the revelation to the parents of Wai's homosexuality, the question of whether Wei Wei will abort the baby, and various ups and downs between Wang and Simon. In the end, Wei Wei agrees to have the baby and turn it over to the gay lovers who will be its "two daddies." Wai will then supply her with a rent-free apartment. The parents are resigned to the situation and accept Simon as a second son. 

            The film assumes the homosexual line that sexual orientation is given at birth and unavoidable, with no element of choice. But interestingly, it concedes that Wai was intimate with a number of girls during his high school years and that he was able to conceive a child by Wei Wei. Surely those relationships were "chosen" in a sense, and Wai's later avoidance of such relationships was also a choice. Wai is not physically incapable of relationships with women; he just happens to prefer relationships with his own sex. In this area, the film admits a certain truth that is inconsistent with its ideology.  

            The same is true on another front. Wai's relationship to Simon is quite romanticized as a monogamous, caring union. But once things get sticky, Simon goes off and has a good time with another fellow, and later he indicates that he may have to leave Wai if the situation doesn't change. The essential promiscuity and the transitory nature of gay love intervenes on the official ideology. Thus there is in this film more truth than its party line would suggest. The fact is that gay relationships rarely take the form of "monogamous" unions. The rule is promiscuity and transitory living arrangements. 

            The ending suggests that everybody will live happily ever after. But what about Wei Wei, who must give up her child and the love of her heart? What of the child who must be raised in the gay culture? What of the gay lovers themselves, who may well betray one another again? As often, this film reveals some disquieting truths despite the apparent intentions of its producers.