Xi yan (1993)

Director:

Ang Lee

Writers:

Ang Lee (writer)
Neil Peng (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

4 August 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A little deception in the reception.

Plot:

To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of hand.

Plot Keywords:

Gay | Wedding | Marriage | Marriage Of Convenience | Landlord

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 12 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Dion Birney	...	Andrew
Jeanne Kuo Chang	...	Wai-Tung's Secretary
Winston Chao	...	Wai-Tung Gao
Paul Chen	...	Guest
May Chin	...	Wei-Wei
Chung-Wei Chou	...	Chef
Yun Chung	...	Guest
Ho-Mean Fu	...	Guest
Michael Gaston	...	Justice of the Peace
Ya-lei Kuei	...	Mrs. Gao
Jeffrey Howard	...	Street Musician
Theresa Hou	...	Female Cashier
Yung-Teh Hsu	...	Bob Law, Wai-Tung's Old Friend
Jean Hu	...	Guest
Albert Huang	...	Guest
Neal Huff	...	Steve
Anthony Ingoglia	...	Wei-Wei's Employer (as Anthony 'Iggy' Ingoglia)
Eddie Johns	...	Haskell
Thomas Koo	...	Guest
Chih Kuan	...	Granny Tien
Robert Larenquent	...	Hispanic Man
Neal Lee	...	Waiter
Mason C. Lee	...	Baby
Dean Li	...	Director Wang
Mitchell Lichtenstein	...	Simon
Jennifer Lin	...	Guest
Sihung Lung	...	Mr. Gao
John Nathan	...	Joe
Francis Pan	...	Guest
Neal Peng	...	Guest
Tien Pien	...	Old Chen
Marny Pocato	...	Miriam
Tonia Rowe	...	Simon's Nurse
Chung-Hsien Su	...	Studio Photographer
Hannah Sullivan	...	Mariane (as Patricia Sullivan)
Elizabeth Yang	...	Guest
Vanessa Yang	...	Mao Mei
Wei-Huang Ying	...	Guest
Peide Yao	...	Egg Head
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ang Lee	...	Guest at the wedding banquet (uncredited)
Mason Lee	...	Man (uncredited)

Directed by
Ang Lee

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ang Lee		writer
Neil Peng		writer
James Schamus		writer

Produced by
Dolly Hall	....	line producer
Ted Hope	....	producer
Li-Kong Hsu	....	associate producer
Feng-Chyt Jiang	....	executive producer
Ang Lee	....	producer
James Schamus	....	producer

Original Music by
Mader

Cinematography by
Jong Lin

Film Editing by
Tim Squyres

Casting by
Judy Dennis

Production Design by
Steve Rosenzweig

Art Direction by
Rachael Weinzimer

Set Decoration by
Amy Beth Silver

Costume Design by
Michael Clancy

Production Management
Shih-chieh Chen	....	executive in charge of production
Bill Rouady	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Annie Tan	....	second second assistant director

Art Department
Linda L. Tseng	....	property master

Sound Department
Jeanne Gilliland	....	boom operator
Pamela Martin	....	sound editor
Tom Paul	....	sound mixer
Dan Sable	....	sound effects editor
Lynn Sable	....	assistant sound editor
Reilly Steele	....	post-production sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Dave Samuel	....	gaffer (as David Samuel)
Susanna Virtanen	....	first assistant camera

Casting Department
Judy Dennis	....	casting: USA
Wendy Ettinger	....	casting: USA
Ben Prayz	....	extras casting: USA

Editorial Department
Melissa Fleming	....	post-production assistant
Elliott Gamson	....	negative cutter
Pamela Martin	....	assistant film editor
David Pultz	....	color timer
Michael Yetter	....	negative cutter

Music Department
Chosei Funahara	....	soundtrack supervisor
Eric Liljestrand	....	music mixer
Samantha Rosenfelds	....	music coordinator

Transportation Department
Philip Harrison	....	transportation coordinator

Other crew
Ling Bai	....	production staff
Steve Chang	....	title designer
Joyce Hsieh	....	production accountant
Mary Jane Skalski	....	post-production delivery coordinator
Jane Stavinoha	....	assistant production coordinator
Michael Taylor	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Central Motion Pictures Corporation
• Good Machine

Distributors

• Samuel Goldwyn Company, The (1993) (USA) (theatrical)
• Arthaus Filmverleih
• Film Arte (Argentina)
• Flashstar Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Golem Distribución (Spain)
• Good Machine
• Homescreen (1994) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Roadshow Entertainment Video (Australia) (VHS)
• Roadshow Entertainment (Australia)
• Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (Argentina) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Si yan (Taiwan)
The Wedding Banquet (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

Taiwan | USA

Language:

Mandarin | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | South Korea:15 | Iceland:L | Singapore:R(A) (cut) | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:S | Germany:6 | Peru:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:Btl | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Central Motion Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Director Cameo: [Ang Lee]a guest at the wedding banquet.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the small family dinner to which Simon treats the newlyweds and Wei-Tung's parents, Simon can be seen to alternately hold chopsticks, a small bowl or nothing in his left hand, depending on the camera angle.

Quotes:

Justice of the Peace: Okay, now you: "I, Wee-Wee...”
Wei-Wei: Wee-Wee.
Justice of the Peace: "... take you, Wai Tung...”
Wei-Wei: Wee-Wee.
Justice of the Peace: Okay. "To be my wedded husband... to have and to hold...”
Wei-Wei: Holding to have, husband, mine...
Justice of the Peace: "... for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer...”
Wei-Wei: Better and richer, no poorer.
Justice of the Peace: "... in sickness and in health, till death do us part."
Wei-Wei: Till sickness and death.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kicking and Screaming (1995)

Soundtrack:

The Wedding Banquet

Ang Lee's best movie so far

The central character of "The Wedding Banquet" looks sullen through almost the entire movie. He knits his brow and ponders as if there were something troubling him to no end. At the very outset, it's quite clear what that is. Wai-Tung is gay, and he hasn't told his Taiwanese parents. He's annoyed with his mother's unwelcome attempts to match him with someone, so she can have what she wants: a grandchild. But he's afraid to tell her or his father why he is not interested. His mixed emotions have no place to go; so they sit on his face, incomplete and unexpressed, except as unresolved anger, much of it at himself. And it's fun to watch as he goes through the motions of pleasing family and lover and acquaintances to take his mind off his troubles.

The script by director Ang Lee, and associates Neil Peng and James Schamus have written a crackerjack story full of things that never have hit the screen before. The wedding banquet itself is full of such insightful details about contemporary Chinese-American life and sentiment that there seems something accomplished that's new to the movies. When the wedding party invades the honeymoon suite, you feel like the writers have a firm grasp on the people they are presenting us, as if they know them, inside and out. I have seen five movies directed by Ang Lee, and this (and maybe his earlier "Pushing Hands") is the only one in which I felt he had a deep understanding of the characters, and for that matter, of human nature and human love.

Filial piety may not be a new thing for the Chinese, and maybe that is why this movie feels rooted, grounded. Wai-Tung who is a successful businessman and landlord commands respect among his colleagues, but when he's with his parents, he's still their little boy. You laugh as this grown man walks with his father, head bowed, keeping exact pace, two steps back, and you realize the secret of the older man's hold on his imitator. Wai-Tung loves his parents, and he knows what they expect. He's ashamed that he doesn't want to fulfill their dreams, that he wants a life of his own, that he didn't turn out as they hoped. But he also cares about his lover Simon, and you know what has drawn them together is that they care about other people. (Simon is a physical therapist who likes lecturing his clients; Wai-Tung tries to appear in charge, but he always seems to be taken advantage of by the people around him.) This concern for others is what draws us to Wai-Tung, and when his parents appear, you know exactly why he's going along with deceiving them.

Winston Chao is handsome and lithe, and he's good at playing a frazzled, bewildered, well-meaning lump. Yet he wouldn't be so likable, if it were not for the propinquity of Mitchell Lichtenstein who clearly has the expressiveness the movie needs. Although the movie comes dangerously close to being one about gay men in love who, in their most private moments, look like the most they do is shake hands, Lichtenstein ("Streamers") manages with the subtlest means to convey a sexual connection. The scene in which Simon presents a cell phone as a gift and carries on a conversation to test it affords Lichtenstein the chance to show what heat he can generate on the screen when he's called to do so. It makes evident how lucky a man Wai-Tung is, and why he'd allow himself to be emotionally torn for so long.

But the most compelling performances here come from Sihung Lung (who played the unwanted father-in-law in "Pushing Hands") and Ah Lei Gua as Mr. and Mrs. Gao. Lung conveys Old-World benevolence that pretty much dictates where this movie goes. He more than fills the shoes of the aging warrior, taking the last few steps that will make his life complete. He grants Mr. Gao a share of dignity his work here rightly deserves. Yet it is Ah Lei Gua who convinces me that she is fully in character. Whether she is bursting into tears over the shabbiness of the civil wedding, or trying to overlook her daughter-in-law's clumsiness in the kitchen, or keeping Simon at a distance when she learns his real position in her son's life, you sense an actress of the highest rank who knows intuitively the character she has been given to play.

With May Chin who, I hear, is very popular in Taiwan, and here carries herself with porcelain elegance. Her Wei-Wei is an enigma, a woman with a penchant for handsome gay men, and the movie is content with leaving her that way. You come away as uneasy about the arrangement she struck with Simon and Wai-Tung as Mrs. Gao is, who exits weeping. When Ang Lee slows down the camera at the end, as Mr. Gao raises his arms to be inspected at the airport gate, the director in spite of himself belies the thought that the old soldier has surrendered to a new enemy--the craziness and the self-indulgence of the next generation. The plangency of that last shot remains with you for a long time.