Product Details

• Actors: Winston Chao, May Chin, Ya-lei Kuei, Sihung Lung, Mitchell Lichtenstein
• Directors: Ang Lee
• Writers: Ang Lee, James Schamus, Neil Peng
• Producers: Ang Lee, Dolly Hall, Feng-Chyt Jiang, James Schamus
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Home Entertainme
• VHS Release Date: September 28, 1994
• Run Time: 106 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303201261
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,508 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

This 1993 international hit by Ang Lee is a funny and poignant story of a gay, Taiwanese-American man who goes to some lengths to fool his visiting family that he's actually straight. The results are far more complicated and entertaining than anyone could have guessed. The film seems all the more rich now since Lee has become a major Hollywood director: that same sensitivity and mild bemusement he brought to such stories of manners as Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm in recent years are in full bloom in this earlier work. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best ever, June 11, 2002

By 

Cambel "cambel" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Wedding Banquet [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I still remember how surprised I was when I saw this movie. Back in the early 90's PC was at it's peak, in addition gay was inextricably linked to AIDS. So imagine my shock when I go to see this movie, a hilarious, touching, movie that gives a wonderfully accurate view of one gay relationship. A couple, one American, one from Taiwan have been together in NYC for years. The Taiwanese man's parents do not know he is gay so keep trying to sign him up for membership in all of these very expensive singles clubs. One of the best scenes is when he and his boyfriend are filling out the application and putting down traits his ideal woman that they think will be impossible to fullfill, "two PHD's, an Opera Singer, speaks 7 languages, ect.." It gets even better when the letter from his parents arrives saying "We've found her" This could have degenerated into a slapstick movie, especially when the parents want to come out to NYC, to throw their son a wedding but it was a Superbly done movie that kept you laughing all the way through. If you have loved any of Ang Lee's Other movies, Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger Hidden Draggon, Eat Drink Man Woman, you will wonder how you've gone so long without seeing this gem. In addition it received an Oscar Nomination for best foreign film "No Subtitles, it is in English" I have loaned this movie out more times than I can count and always have a difficult time getting it back. My only wish is that more gay movies were this high quality.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a difference 11 years makes, December 5, 2004

By 

Thomas Janowski "tomj1963" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wedding Banquet (DVD)

I originally saw this movie in a theater in 1993 and at that time thought it was excellent. I've seen so many movies since then and have developed a liking for low-budget, indie films because the slick Hollywood films are polished beyond real life.

What a pleasure it is to see The Wedding Banquet again after all these years. I have to say it's very different from most new gay themed movies coming out today. First and foremost there is almost no male nudity. I'm sure if current films would try to get away with no male nudity.

For a movie that seems to benefit from lots of money and production values, nothing in the way of the story was lost. This is an excellent film depicting the life of a gay couple in 1993. It's about a culture clash between the growing openness of America vs. the unknown (to me) Asian cultures.

It is both a sweet love story and a dramatic film about a couple dealing with parents. I think in the end all the characters in the film ended up with more than they ever hoped for. There was honesty about being gay. There was help for an immigrant wanting to stay in the US and a gay couple was about to become parents....

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Have To See This, October 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wedding Banquet [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A Taiwanese man, living in the U.S with his partner, is quite happy until a certain problem arises: his parents have decided to visit him and his girlfriend. Why is this a problem? Well, for one thing, he doesn't have a girlfriend. He has a boyfriend, who is also white. Some people just insist on making their lives complex don't they? And so with the assistance of his friend - a Taiwanese girl who's an illegal immigrant, he attempts to solve two problems at once. If he marries her, then she can stay in America and he can keep up the pretense to his parents that he's straight. Simple, huh? Well no. The parents arrive in time for the all-important wedding banquet, and our hero finds himself doing something to his new wife that he never thought was possible. From the director of Eat Drink Man Woman this is a lovely film that is really quite funny and yet delivers serious drama, with more than competant acting.