All in The Families

• Share

(2 of 2)

More conventionally than The Joy Luck Club, The Wedding Banquet plays with images of the Eastern character. "Fifth Avenue is too expensive," Mrs. Gao complains after a shopping tour. "And when we find something suitable, it's made in Taiwan." But as the movie ripens from Green Card situation comedy into mellow drama, it finds human wrinkles in its stock figures. There's no gay baiting or Taipei typecasting. The old folks possess hidden reserves of sagacity; the young folks can bend to meet them before saying a last, wistful goodbye.

Hollywood sometimes thinks that once people grow up, they no longer have families; their lives turn into the heroic tracking of other people's demons in an endless action-adventure serial. But movies don't have to be only about the pursuit of a one-armed man. They can also be about chasing the dragon tail of filial responsibility -- isn't that a form of everyday heroism? The Mexican hit Like Water for Chocolate proved that American audiences can respond to stories about love and marriage, food and family. The Joy Luck Club and The Wedding Banquet display this same wisdom: that we never stop being our parents' children, and they never stop being ours. R.C.