The Wedding Banquet

Summary

Wai-Tung has immigrated from china to the U.S. to purse his dreams. After his college days he meets Simon, who he develops an intimate relationship with and moves in with.  Wai-Tung never came out to his parents. His father however has been getting sick and his last wish is to have a grandchild to continue the family line and have Wai-Tung get married. His two parents' basically want to force him to get married. He has been with his partner Simon and does not plan to leave him because he's in love. When he tells his Simon this,  Simon  advises him to get married to Wei-Wei; one of his tenants that needs a green card and they could both benefit by a get tax break . Wai-Tung agrees, when he tells his parents about the marriage they decide to travel to America to go to the wedding. So they get married in a court house, however the mom is really upset with this and after the weeding they run into an old friend that owns a restaurant and offers to have a party for the married couple. During this party Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei get really drunk and are required to sleep in the same room. Wei-Wei does come on to Wai-Tung when they're in bed and they have unprotected sex which get Wei-Wei pregnant. Wai-Thung tells Simon right away. Simon gets really upset at first, but he has to deal with it and forgives Wai-Tung. Wai-Tung is forced to tell his mom the secret and she is upset but promises to not tell his father. However we find out at the end the father knew all along and that was his plot to so he gets his wish a grandchild.  

Major theme

Main themes are sexual preference, family, tradition, pressure, love, and immigration. Wai-Tung fell in love with the same sex, but he knew his parent's wouldn't approve so he is forced to hide that part of his life. This shows how some people are scared to show there true identity and may be forced to hide there feelings because they may not be accepted by there family or friends. The tradition is for a man to marry a women and have a big wedding and to keep the family line going, however Wai-Tung has chosen to follow his own path. Also the problem of immigration is shown when Wei-Wei is ready to move back to china because without her green card creating a future in the U.S. is to difficult.

Reaction

 I enjoyed the movie a lot. It was very comic, but serious at times. It promotes equality and sends a very positive message. It deals with issues people have to deal with every day. Great twist at the end. It kept my attention at the way till the end, just to see Wai-Tung and Simons plan fail; as well as Wai-Tung reviling who he really is.