The Wedding Banquet

Wai-Tung's life seems near perfect: a Taiwanese in New York, he's a natural at real estate, and shares an apartment with his long-time lover Simon (Lichtenstein). There's just one problem: he hasn't come out to his folks who still write from Taiwan of their desire for grandchildren. To forestall an arranged marriage, Wai-Tung persuades his tenant Wei-Wei (May Chin), a Shanghai woman in need of a Green Card, to join in a marriage of mutual convenience. His parents then announce they're coming for the wedding. Never patronising his characters, Ang Lee combines comedy, both subtle and raucous, with acute social asides. There's genuine pain and confusion amid the jokes, so that the bitter-sweet, tentatively positive coda packs real punch. Winston Chow's Wai-Tung is initially rather stilted, but the rest of the cast performs excellently, and the script is admirably matter-of-fact in its treatment of the threatened gay relationship.