The Wedding Banquet

Wai-Tung Gao (Winston Chao) and Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) are a happy gay couple living in Manhattan. Wai-Tung is in his late 20s, so his Taiwanese parents (Sihung Lung and Ah-Leh Gua) are eager to see him get married and have a child. The early part of the movie is madcap comedy. When Wai-Tung's parents hire a dating service he and Simon stall for time by inventing impossible demands. Chinese opera singers are always men, so they demand an opera singer and add that she must be very tall, must have two Ph.D.'s and should speak five languages. The service actually locates a 1.75 m (5'9') Chinese woman who sings Western opera, speaks five languages and has a single Ph.D. She is very gracious when Wai-Tung explains his dilemma. At Simon's insistence, Wai-Tung decides to get married to one of his tenants, Wei-Wei (May Chin), a penniless artist from mainland China in need of a green card. Besides helping out Wei-Wei, Simon and Wai-Tung hope that this will placate Wai-Tung's parents. Mr. and Mrs. Gao (Sihung Lung and Ah Lei Gua) decide to fly in from Taiwan, bringing US$30,000 to hold a magnificent wedding ceremony for their son. Wai-Tung dares not tell his parents the true situation, because his father has just recovered from a stroke; they go through with the wedding. However, the heartbreak his mother experiences at the courthouse wedding prepares the story for a shift to drama. The only way to atone for the disgraceful wedding is a magnificent wedding banquet. After the banquet, Wei-Wei seduces the drunken Wai-tung, and becomes pregnant. Simon is extremely upset when he finds out, and his relationship with Wai-Tung begins to deteriorate. In a moment of anger, after a fight with both Simon and Wei-Wei, Wai-Tung tells his mother the truth. She is shocked and insists that he not tell his father. The perceptive Mr. Gao sees more than he is letting on; he secretly tells Simon that he knows about their relationship, and, appreciating the co