1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.
In class we discussed the differences between Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese cinemas. Hong Kong is known for its material arts films, while Taiwan can blend West and East in its cinema. That was certainly the case seen here in The Wedding Banquet. The main character, Wai-Tung, is caught between worlds - the East (his parents and their traditions) and the West (his nontraditional sexuality and his partner Simon).
2) Find a related article and summarize the content.
http://library.kean.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=keaninf&db=ufh&AN=28439727&site=ehost-live&scope=site
William Leung's So Queer Yet So Straight: Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain deals with the question of whether or not Ang Lee's gay films (The Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain) can fall under the genre of Queer Cinema. Queer Cinema is a genre of films that are either: A) directed by an LGBT person, B) deals with LGBT themes, and/or C) has a large LGBT cult following. The article focuses a lot on Brokeback Mountain but what it has to say about The Wedding Banquet is fascinating. Leung argues that Lee has made a "straight queer story" meaning that he has melded both the straight world and the gay world into a cohesive film.
3) Apply the article to the film screened in class.
I think that after having read Leung's article, I can see that this movie is not just a melding of East and West, but of two other cultures- gay and straight. For being a straight director, Lee gets a lot of small things about gay culture right- for example having Simon being part of ACT UP, a vocal and popular AIDS-research activist group that was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. He also treats his gay main characters with respect and care- showing them as tender and intimate lovers who genuinely care for each other. It would have been easy to make them into a joke - flamboyant and feminine, but instead Lee treats them with respect. Likewise, he has a great respect for the traditional side of Wai-Tung's family too. The parents too could have easily been made into jokes, but Lee respects them. He finds a way for both halves, the East and the West, to work together cohesively.
4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of the screening, class discussions, text material and the article.
This is one of my favorite movies screened in class so far. I appreciate the way Ang Lee handles gay themes in his films (Brokeback Mountain and Taking Woodstock are the other two that deal with gay themes); he has a certain respect for gay people that's sadly hard to find in a lot of mainstream films. The movie is funny but the humor doesn't come at the expense of xenophobia (there are no jokes about how "weird" and backwards the Gao's are) or homophobia. It's simply a comedy of errors told in a new and original context.
Citation:
The Wedding Banquet. Ang Lee. The Samuel Goldwyn Company. 1993. Film.
Leung, William. So Queer Yet So Straight: Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain. Journal of Film & Video, Spring 2008 Vol 60 Issue 1. http://library.kean.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,cpid&custid=keaninf&db=ufh&AN=28439727&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Retrieved 30 March 2017.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM
1) ( x ) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.
2) ( x ) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.
3) ( x ) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.
4) ( x ) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.
5) ( x ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.
6) ( x ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.
7) ( x ) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.
8) ( x ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.
Name: ___Melissa Faitoute______ Date: _30 March 2017____________________
1) ( x ) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.
2) ( x ) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.
3) ( x ) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.
4) ( x ) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.
5) ( x ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.
6) ( x ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.
7) ( x ) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.
8) ( x ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.
Name: ___Melissa Faitoute______ Date: _30 March 2017____________________
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