The Wedding Banquet

It's a wise, sweet-natured film, and one that manages to have fun with its charac ters without judgment or condescension. [04 Aug 1993, p.E1]

A comedy of great charm and generosity, Ang Lee's "The Wedding Banquet" is the freshest, happiest surprise of the movie year. [06 Aug 1993, p.D16]

More touching than daring, The Wedding Banquet is an exquisite comedy, brimming with simple human decency and more belly laughs than any comedy I've seen this year. [15 Oct 1993, p.4]

Beneath its whimsy and sexual politics, there is a core of humanity in this movie that is deeply satisfying, and powerful enough to disarm even the most vehement homophobia. [06 Aug 1993]

A terrific blend of farce and personal stories, "The Wedding Banquet" is no mere slapdash slapstick. With its graceful, character-driven screenplay and sympathetically zippy lead performances from Chao as dutiful gay son, Chin as the immigrant artist and Lichtenstein as the longtime companion, "The Wedding Banquet" is a tender feast of wit and charm. [04 Aug 1993]

The Wedding Banquet is one of the year's most joyful film discoveries - multiculturally hip, acted and directed with finesse, full of bright surprises, with lots of heart. [27 Aug 1993, p.81]

The Wedding Banquet benefits especially from the performances of seasoned Taiwanese actors Sihung Lung and Ah-Leh Gua as Wai-Tung's parents. [27 Aug 1993, p.C]

It is the unusual film comedy in which the humor springs as much from character as from situation. Read full review

The Wedding Banquet is being presented as a zany comedy, complete with promotional fortune cookie giveaways in theater lobbies. But it's really a sweet, perceptive story about the cost of deception and the power of family rituals. Read full review

Cultural clashes all over the place in this sweet and gently comedy. Read full review

Never patronising his characters, Ang Lee combines comedy, both subtle and raucous, with acute social asides. Read full review

As poignant and pointed as it is funny (and it is very funny), it dresses up familiar forms with modern twists and ends up an assured and amusing comedy of manners. [04 Aug 1993, p.F1]

Though a few scenes are amateurish and the lighting is less than polished, "The Wedding Banquet" is such a genial, openhearted sitcom that only a confirmed grump could resist it. [16 Aug 1993, p.61]

Independently produced on a small budget and directed by the New York-based Taiwanese moviemaker Ang Lee, The Wedding Banquet has the spontaneity, unpredictability and human warmth that are lacking in Sleepless In Seattle and The Fugitive. [26 Sep 1993, p.4]

The Wedding Banquet wins fans with its sunny disposition as it turns a contemporary story about a marriage of convenience into a deft bedroom farce and humanist drama. Read full review

A very adroit and entertaining social comedy. Read full review

What makes the film work is the underlying validity of the story, the way the filmmakers don’t simply go for melodrama and laughs, but pay these characters their due. At the end of the film, I was a little surprised how much I cared for them. Read full review

There is enough depth in this picture to fill up several movies, yet The Wedding Banquet shortchanges none of its interwoven storylines. While I won't go so far as to say that this is a magical motion picture, it certainly serves as excellent entertainment on more than one level. Read full review

All the characters are treated with respect and affection, even at their most comical and deluded, but Lee knows how to stop just short of overplaying the emotional scenes. [27 Aug 1993, p.AE13]

Like many frugally financed movies, director Ang Lee's charmer depends on characterizations, not flamboyant technique. [19 Aug 1993, p.4D]

The result is a movie that's funny and touching, yes, but also has something to say about family, and about the deceptions we practice in the name of harmony. Ang Lee seems to know something about the subject, and his movie is knowing and wise, too. [17 Sep 1993, p.G5]

Imagine a funnier, more thoughtful, more bittersweet version of "Green Card" and you'll have a pretty good description of a Chinese-American comedy called "The Wedding Banquet." [27 Aug 1993, p.L20]

The Wedding Banquet is sweet and touching and, at times, very funny. [27 Aug 1993, p.3F]

This intriguing but somewhat overlong (at two hours) comedy is mostly concerned with the melancholy and frustrating aspects of gay life in Japan, where taboos remain deeply entrenched and there is next to no privacy in puritanical society. Read full review

The Wedding Banquet slides down easily even if it doesn't leave much aftertaste. Read full review