Ang Lee's second film "The Wedding Banquet", together with his "Pushing Hands" and "Eating Men and Women", is called the father trilogy. Explore the theme of traditional patriarchy in the context of the collision of Eastern and Western cultures. "The Wedding Banquet" is a light comedy, "Double Happiness" was changed to "Three Happiness", and the three became happy. The playful handling of fonts and the figures of two men and one woman in the popular posters all indicate that this wedding ceremony is not a traditional marriage between men and women in front of relatives and friends, but a secret conclusion of the relationship between the three.
In the wedding photos of the poster, the groom is obviously more intimate with the best man, leaning towards the blond best man, holding the best man's hand. And the bride looked directly at the camera and had no time to take into account or ignore it. A line of text on it reads "Everyone at the wedding wants to kiss the bride except the groom". This further highlights a gimmick in the film: the relationship of the threesome is actually a story of two men falling in love, with a woman mixed in, and this wedding banquet is a deception with ulterior motives.
Occasionally, the three-person relationship under pressure, gay man Saimen, came up with the idea to let Wei Tong and Gu Weiwei get married in a fake. The same tenant, Gu Weiwei, a mainlander who studied painting in New York, obtained the qualification to legally reside in the United States. So the three of them conspired together, each with their own goals. The accidental conclusion of the three-person relationship requires facing and dealing with their own pressures. The two-person world that Simon was looking forward to, the birthday trip to Paris spoiled the wedding banquet; Wei Tong wanted to "play four with one person", maintaining a balance like pushing hands in Tai Chi between his parents, Simon and Wei Wei; Wei Wei was going to Personally, I make a choice between Wei Tong's personal relationship and the choice of staying in the United States or returning to China.
In the whole film dominated by a single shot, Ang Lee uses a combination of Chinese and Western humorous music and a few cautious quick cuts to dramatize the pressure of the protagonists in moderation: The first quick cut switches Wei Tong with different fitness equipment, and in my ears was a voice tape sent by my mother from Taiwan to urge marriage. Under the shadow of his father's majesty, he was forced to cooperate. In the second quick edit, in order to cope with the inspection by the Immigration Bureau, the camera switches to Simon with Weiwei knowing the arrangement of Weitong's clothes, and telling Weitong's life details in every detail. Weiwei wrote it down in the small notebook as if listening to the important speech of the leader.
The third quick cut, the plot advances to the parents coming to New York to attend Wei Tong and Wei Wei's wedding. The three of them are busy changing the layout of the apartment, replacing Wei Tong and Simon's intimate photos, naked, sexually flamboyant personal photos and small dolls with Weiwei and Weitong's restrained group photo, Weitong's father Zhongzheng's peaceful calligraphy. The arrangement that has a new look and also annihilates individuality is to compromise individual preferences to parental preferences under the pressure of traditional patriarchy. Through several meaningful symbols, such as photos of sexual liberation, photos of same-sex love are replaced by the ICON of traditional Chinese culture - calligraphy scrolls. The fourth quick clip, condensing three hours of bridal makeup, Weiwei looks dazed and stunned, like the duck that catches the duck on the shelf.
The traditional patriarchal relationship behind the three The core of the three-person relationship lies in the majesty and ignorance of the traditional patriarchy. The three obviously agree on this point. They have reached a deceitful consensus on this point. Pay attention to Simon's love for Chinese culture. the idea of a fake marriage. The majesty of the father carries the inheritance of the patriarchal role for thousands of years. Even today, 23 years later, this patriarchal influence can be recognized by the vast majority of Chinese audiences. The kindness of parents is always separated by mountains and rivers. The father-son relationship in American movies is obviously impossible in China. The father's gesture of showing kindness is still the same as before, punching Weitong a few times. Or in the morning unsmilingly walking with his son. The second old man vividly recalled "Little Fatty" and took a bite on the arm of a young man in his thirties, showing his nostalgia for Wei Tong as a child, which really delineated the "idiot" of being a parent, while Wei Tong's face was full of disbelief. Vice was shy and embarrassed, and wanted to run away.
The loss of equal communication under the majesty of traditional patriarchy has led to the aphasia of the younger generation. Wei Tong suppressed his intimate words for more than 20 years and played a good son under the prestige of filial piety. Important conversations between the two generations are taking place at the dinner table. The father is often not the initiator of the speech, but the leader of the speech. Silently eating, he controls the atmosphere and direction of communication. His laughter and anger were quite weighty.
Going back to the name of the movie The Wedding Banquet itself, the farce display of traditional Chinese culture with the greatest conflict was at the banquet, or the dinner table. Ang Lee, who was a guest star, explained this wonder in the eyes of Westerners. He said, "You are seeing the result of sexual repression for five thousand years."
The wedding banquet is a necessary "account" for the parents. The camera zooms to the parents of Xiang Lao Chen Daxie, satisfied and tired, and then pulls back the bride and groom who drank too much and cuddled with each other, watching the eyes of the two elderly people It contains soft and affectionate feelings. The background music "Old Cheng" at this time uses symphony mixed with pipa sounds to remove the soothing and sadness. It is the placement of traditional culture, a kind of Ang Lee-style understanding and warmth that cannot bear criticism. Three people form a family
In the end, the conclusion of the three-way trip was not for love, but for each concession, compromise, and inclusion into a family. In the life experience of the older generation of Wei Tong's parents, every Chinese person is familiar with the tricks that his father told when serving tea. Just like the father who ran away from home and joined the army in the early years, he finally settled down to marry a wife and have children, and took root overseas and spread the incense. From rebellion to tameness, from individual propaganda to belonging to the collective, this is the victory of Chinese-style compromise and harmonious wisdom. Then another generation of young people will face Chinese tameness.
In the era of self-promotion and personality liberation in the West, Ang Lee, through the conflicting identity of "homosexuality", allows the protagonist to complete a cultural review of himself, and is strongly influenced and comfortable with himself in the traditional Chinese culture carried by his parents. Under the collision of the two western cultures, he had to deal with it. Li An once said: "In a society that is changing too fast, where should filial piety go? It seems that people can only accept and catch up with these changes. In fact, they are very helpless and melancholy." The traditional Chinese culture represented by his father behind him deals with the cognition of "family".
In the end, Wei Tong still didn't give up the two-person world with Simon. Under the fake drama with Gu Weiwei, he acquiesced to the extended child that his parents asked for, which was a compromise. Simon's approval and Vigilant's generosity enabled the three-man family to be forged. Everyone gave up and sacrificed, a kind of Chinese-style forbearance and comprehensiveness. Under the compromise, the most important homosexuality was preserved. In the scene of seeing off at the last airport, the father made a gesture of surrender when facing the security check. The sobbing pipa sound, the father's aging and dejected expression, a retired general who was galloping on the battlefield gave up on rectifying his unfilial son. He sees, he listens, he learns, and finally he compromises.
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