The wedding banquet
Movie | |
---|---|
German title | The wedding banquet |
Original title | 喜宴 (Pinyin: Xǐyàn, Wade-Giles: Hsi yen) |
Country of production | Taiwan , USA |
original language | Standard Chinese , English |
Publishing year | 1993 |
length | 103 minutes |
Age rating | FSK 6 |
Rod | |
Director | Ang Lee |
script | Ang Lee Neil Peng James Schamus |
production |
Ted Hope Ang Lee James Schamus |
music | Mader |
camera | Jong Lin |
cut | Tim Squyres |
occupation | |
|
The Wedding Banquet is a film by Ang Lee from 1993. The film was Ang Lee's international breakthrough.
action
Wai-Tung Gao from Taiwan has lived in New York for a long time and is very successful. But his elderly parents at home urge him to finally find a wife and start a family. Little did they know that their son is gay and lives happily with his American friend Simon.
Finally, Wai-Tung decides to enter into a marriage of convenience with the attractive painter Wei-Wei. The penniless artist longs for a green card , it's the perfect deal. However, his parents arrive unexpectedly and Wai-Tung, Simon and Wei-Wei are forced to play a charade for them. Much to the displeasure of the parents, the wedding is initially just an unspectacular official act in a small circle. It then happened by chance that a restaurant owner, who is deeply connected to Wai-Tung's father, treats the bride and groom to an opulent wedding banquet out of gratitude. The traditional Chinese event is celebrated with numerous guests, lots of bohei and lots of alcohol. On their wedding night, Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei sleep together: Wei-Wei, who in her role as daughter-in-law belongs to a loving family for the first time, overcomes the initial defenses of the drunk Wai-Tung.
Wei-Wei becomes pregnant. Simon finds out that she and Wai-Tung slept together. A loud argument ensues between the homosexual couple, believing that the parents present do not understand a word of the foreign language. After this argument, the father had a minor stroke. In the hospital, the troubled Wai-Tung reveals his sexual orientation to his mother. However, the two decide to continue to hide this from their father in order to protect him.
Once again released from the hospital, the father takes Simon into his trust. He understood the exchange between the couple very well and asks Simon to take good care of his son and the upcoming grandchild. The mother should not know, however, and Wei-Wei and Wai-Tung should not find out that the father knows. Then Wei-Wei decides not to abort the child, as originally planned, and instead to raise it together with Wai-Tung and Simon. On departure for home, the parents, both in their own way, are reconciled and leave behind an unconventional young family in New York.
Reviews
- "With this delicious mixture of" Victor / Victoria "and" Green Card ", the Taiwanese Ang Lee succeeded in creating a gorgeous comedy which, in addition to delicious humor, also has thoughtful themes. The turbulent fun was rightly awarded the Golden Bear in the best Blake Edwards tradition. ” (Blickpunkt: Film)
Awards
- Golden Bear at the Berlinale 1993
- Oscar and Golden Globe nomination in the foreign language film category (1994)
Web links
- The Wedding Banquet in the Internet Movie Database (English)