Nnenne Ogbonnaya

Feb 22 2018

International Film

The Wedding Banquet (1993)

Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of the
screening, class discussions, text material and the article. / Relate what was discussed in class or the
text to the screening. Find a related article and summarize the content.
Apply the article to the film screened in class.

Starting off as a comedy The Wedding Banquet (1993) soon becomes the dark reality of

life and the expectations of family and life. Living with a secret, the protagonist is faced with

dealing with his culture and expectations of family and living true to himself while all meshing

realities, all depending on who he comes in contact with and what truths they need at that

moment. The banquet is like the metaphor for the façade, to preserve everyone’s happiness the

protagonist, Wai Tung must endure. Going through extravagant comedic leaps to hide the reality

of Wai Tung and his partner’s existence as not to upset his traditional parents is what makes this

movie so funny and enjoyable, coupled by the fake wife that ironically cannot even c fry an egg

and serves her green-card husband his lovers breakfast instead as she herself is living a lie with

her pale boyfriend. With a lot of un-needed complications and stunts dreamed up by Simon, the

partner, all of this made the ruse even more crazy and beyond anyone’s control, this was smart

writing and directing by Ang Lee.

All puns aside the dark reality of living this life is common among homosexuals in all

cultures across the world, but this moment is highlighted the most in the Asian cultures.

According to John (Song Pae) Cho an Anthrophonic researcher, they studied ‘Contact

Marriages’, detailing how Korean gays and lesbians sell into South Korea’s heteronormative

system affixed in the heterosexual family dynamic. Through this they conquer up marriage
contacts in order to fulfil their family duties to marry and continue the line without fears of being

outed. Even though the study was mainly in Korea this can be seen obviously in Taiwan as

depicted in this movie. This is the underlining truth of what is being presented in the film masked

in funny gags and sophisticated dialogue. In the pursuit to fulfil the happiness of family in their

culture, they may transform the heteronormative values of marriage and challenge the model of

‘out and proud’ in their families finds the research. I believe that this contact marriage can turn

away the individual to self-sacrifice their culture for westernized models of lifestyle, this can

include removing themselves from their traditions and assimilate to westernized life never

reconnecting with their culture, or as simple as purposely finding white counterparts to adopt

their culture and lifestyle. Not to insinuating Wei Tung did not seem to overtly disagree with his

traditional lifestyle.

References
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F0CEFDB1431F937A3575BC0A965958260

Cho, J. P. (2009). The Wedding Banquet Revisited: "Contract Marriages" Between Korean Gays and
Lesbians. Anthropological Quarterly 82(2), 401-422. George Washington University Institute for
Ethnographic Research. Retrieved February 22, 2018, from Project MUSE database.

CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM

1) ( X ) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.

2) ( X) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.

3) (X ) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the
text.

4) ( X ) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.

5) (X ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.

6) ( X ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper
and in the bibliography.

7) ( X ) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.

8) (X ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.

Name: Nnenne O_ Date: Feb 22 2018