This second film from Ang Lee probably felt a lot edgier thirty years ago
when attitudes towards homosexuality were much more regressive than today.
It is hard for me to project myself back that far though but considering
that there is still is long ways to go, I would imagine it was much worse
three decades ago. But in fact the film got excellent reviews and made a
large profit. With the edge taken out by changing times and hundreds of films
and TV shows centered on homosexuality since, it no longer has any shock
value and could almost be a film of the Week material with its contrivances.
Except it is in the hands of Ang Lee who wrings a fair amount of emotion
and humor out of it and creates five very appealing characters. By the end
this family has become important to us. As the two parents are about to get
on the plane to go back home, they tell each other that they are happy. And
contrivances or not, so are we. It just creeps up on you.
Wai-tung (Winston Chao) and his boy friend Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein)
are doing just fine in a loving relationship for five years with enough money
to afford a yuppie lifestyle. Wai-tung is from Taiwan and has never told
his parents about his sexual preferences and keeps putting them off about
getting married and having a boy to carry on the family name. Wai-tung is
also a minor slumlord but one of the good ones I guess. One of his tenants
is Wei-wei (May Chin, who left show business soon after this film to enter
Taiwan's Legislature and is still there) who comes from China and is worried
about being deported if she can't get a green card. The parents keep the
pressure on even sending a girl from Taiwan for his approval. She quickly
finds out he is gay and admits she has a Gweilo boyfriend and wants none
of this!
Simon comes up with a grand scheme for Wai-tung to marry Wei-wei and solve
both their problems. When he mentions the tax deduction she will bring with
her, Wai-tung is sold. But that is just the beginning of the complications.
The parents (Shihung Lung who had been in Ang Lee's first film, Pushing Hands.
and his next Eat Drink Man Woman and Gua Ah-lei as the mother - she has been
in loads of Hong Kong and Taiwanese films) decide to come over for the marriage.
Yikes. And they want a huge wedding banquet. Double yikes. The banquet and
the aftermath is funny and sweet. I want to go to a Chinese wedding.
At this point you figure the film has two directions that it can go in. Either
Wai-tung decides to switch teams or there is the big reveal to the parents
- a huge drama but a final resolution. Well, yes and no. The film plays with
all of that. Ang Lee underplays it all and gives us a wonderful resolution.
