Film

The Wedding Banquet

Ang Lee's breakout comedy follows Wai-Tung, a gay Taiwanese-American man in New York, who stages a green-card marriage to placate his traditional parents — only for the fake wedding to spiral into real, tender chaos when they fly in to throw the whole event themselves. It's funny, generous, and quietly devastating about the lies families tell each other out of love.

TMDb rating7.2

If you liked this

Monsoon Wedding2001no page yet

Mira Nair's big, messy Delhi wedding film has the same DNA — an arranged marriage, a house full of relatives, secrets bubbling under every polite exchange, all shot with real warmth and chaos.

But It juggles several subplots at once and can feel overstuffed if you want something tighter and more focused.

The Birdcage1996no page yet

A gay son stages an elaborate performance of straightness for conservative in-laws-to-be, and the farce escalates gloriously — it's the loud American cousin to Wai-Tung's quieter deception.

But It's broader and campier than the Wedding Banquet's tenderness — pure high farce rather than bittersweet drama.

Green Card1990no page yet

Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell's marriage of convenience for immigration papers is the plot engine here too, and watching strangers fake intimacy convincingly is just as fun.

But It's a straightforward romantic comedy with none of the family-and-identity stakes that make the Wedding Banquet cut deeper.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

I Was a Male War Bride1949

Same engine — a marriage staged to satisfy the state rather than the heart, and the identity you have to perform to get the paperwork through.

Cary Grant, in a screwball farce decades before Lee's film, has to disguise his identity to get through immigration paperwork after marrying an American officer — bureaucracy-as-comedy, done with old Hollywood's snap and polish.

But Its gender-bending gags read very differently seventy years on, and the politics are of their era, not ours.

I Was a Male War Bride poster
More like this (6)

Crazy Rich Asians2018

Bringing a partner home to a family with very different expectations, wrapped in lavish wedding-adjacent spectacle — glossier and more romantic, but the parental disapproval hits familiar notes.

But It trades the Wedding Banquet's intimacy for glamour and scale; this is a fantasy, not a slice of life.

Crazy Rich Asians poster

Eat Drink Man Woman1994

Ang Lee's other family comedy, made right after this one — a widowed chef and his three daughters, secrets over Sunday dinners, the same gentle comic touch with generational friction.

But There's less plot momentum than the Wedding Banquet — it's more a mosaic of family life than a farce with a ticking clock.

Eat Drink Man Woman poster

My Big Fat Greek Wedding2002

A loud, loving, overbearing family colliding with a wedding they didn't ask for — the culture-clash comedy is broader here, but the affection underneath is the same.

But It's sitcom-simple where the Wedding Banquet has real ache; don't expect anything to linger after the credits.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding poster

Bend It Like Beckham2002

A child caught between what their immigrant parents expect and who they actually are, played for warmth and comedy rather than despair — the emotional shape is very close to Wai-Tung's.

But It's about football and ambition rather than sexuality and marriage, so the parallel is more structural than literal.

Bend It Like Beckham poster

Brokeback Mountain2005

Ang Lee again, tackling hidden gay love and the marriages built to disguise it — the tone is far more tragic, but it's essential viewing for what this theme becomes in his hands over a decade later.

But It's a heavier, sadder film with none of the comic relief — go in braced for grief, not chaos.

Brokeback Mountain poster

The Family Stone2005

A partner brought home to a chaotic, opinionated family over one fraught holiday — lots of comedy of manners, a queer family member, and a house that can't quite hold everyone's secrets.

But It's a lesser, more sentimental film overall, worth it mainly for the ensemble messiness rather than any deeper insight.

The Family Stone poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by