Long before Ang Lee made 'that' movie about sheep-herding, self-loathing trailer-trash, he made this little gem. One of the first to spot the potential of the big ethnic/gay wedding, he squeezes every drop of mirth from the situation here. Simon and Wai-Tung have been happy together since they met in college five years ago. Wai invests in New York property for his parents in far off Taipei, and is running out of excuses for not accepting any of their arranged brides in return. A solution seems to present itself in the shapely form of a female tennant from Shanghai. She's in desperate need of a greencard; he needs a wife to keep the folks at home happy. Problem solved? Of course not! Mum and dad wouldn't dream of missing their only son's nuptuals, so they jump on the next flight for the States. Pretty soon things are getting hilariously out of hand. The viewer may be too busy laughing to notice the attention to detail that have become the hallmarks of Ang Lee's later films. Every nuance of the characters is deftly observed: the camera work and framing precise and filled with detail. As Wai-Tung's father 'The General' remarks of a particularly fine calligraphic scroll: "there is not one 'loser' stroke".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment