Ang Lee’s groundbreaking ‘The Wedding Banquet’ was so much more than a gay rom-com
Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” In this week’s column, in honor of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, we’re revisiting Ang Lee’s 1993 rom-com The Wedding Banquet.Family is a tricky thing.
You love them, you hate them—and you literally can’t exist without them. They contain perhaps more drama, tension, love, depth, and meaning than any other relationships in our lives, and that’s without even getting into the queer angle of things.
They make for a seemingly endless well of narratives, and a particularly fruitful catalyst point in romantic comedies. The jump from family life to romantic life is, after all, one of the great schisms we experience as we grow up.
Not to be overly reductive or traditional, but you exist in the former until you are ready to move on to the latter: You leave your family and take on your romantic partner.
