My 150 Favorite Films - #16

The Wedding Banquet (1993)

Before Ang Lee became world famous directing such modern-day classics as Brokeback Mountain, Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, he made this small, early film, about a gay, Taiwanese man who intends to go through with a sham wedding in order to please his traditional parents. Needless to say, complications arise. Nominated for Best Foreign Language of 1993, The Wedding Banquet was also the most profitable film of 1993, relative to its cost, and to my mind, the most enjoyable.