Remaking Ang Lee’s award-winning 1993 queer rom-com The Wedding ceremony Banquet isn’t any imply feat, however Fireplace Island‘s Andrew Ahn makes a masterclass of it.
A wholehearted, hilarious strategy to Lee’s rambunctious narrative, The Wedding ceremony Banquet balances the pressures of cultural traditions and household expectations with the liberation and pleasure of discovered household. Boasting a veritable feast of a solid delivering impeccable, humorous, and shifting performances, the movie is a deeply romantic story a couple of good ruse that spins uncontrolled. However there’s readability (and love) to be discovered within the chaos for these fantastic characters.
What’s The Wedding ceremony Banquet about?
Han Gi-Chan, Youn Yuh-jung, and Kelly Marie Tran in “The Wedding Banquet.”
Credit score: Bleecker Road / ShivHans Photos
The Wedding ceremony Banquet centres on two homosexual {couples} who’re buddies, every with main life hurdles forward of them — and a proposal that would show a brief resolution to all of it. Ahn groups up with Lee’s co-writer James Schamus to maneuver the unique movie’s New York-set narrative to Seattle, and the pair broaden on the strain between cultural custom, household, and queer id within the current day.
Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Lily Gladstone and The Final Jedi star Kelly Marie Tran play Lee and Angela, lesbians who’re fighting their IVF journey and its towering prices. Depraved star Bowen Yang and Our Track‘s Han Gi-Chan play homosexual couple Chris and Min, who’re navigating differing ranges of dedication and Min’s looming scholar visa expiry. A gifted artist who isn’t out to his rich Korean household, Min is confronted with a conundrum: change into the top of certainly one of his grandparents’ corporations or be pressured to return to Korea. And whereas Min plans to suggest to his love of 5 years, Chris, Min’s grandfather would probably minimize him off financially in the event that they acquired married.
So, for the last word win-win, the 4 resolve on a deal: Min and Angela will get a green-card marriage if Min pays for Angela and Lee’s IVF bills along with his household’s cash. With a metropolis corridor appointment within the diary, the whole lot’s on target. However when Min’s grandmother Ja-Younger (Pachinko and Minari display screen legend Youn Yuh-jung) arrives to satisfy her grandson’s betrothed and assist plan the ceremony, the marriage scheme ranges up in stress, extravagance, and comedic potential. There’s only one hour for the group to “de-queer the house,” and Chris, Lee, and Angela are thrown right into a flurry of swiftly eradicating the home’s wealth of Tegan and Sara and Elliot Web page books, The L Phrase DVDs, and Lilith Truthful posters. Will it work?
The solid of The Wedding ceremony Banquet are chic.
Han Gi-Chan and Bowen Yang in “The Wedding Banquet.”
Credit score: Bleecker Road / ShivHans Photos
You can’t ask for higher than the solid of The Wedding ceremony Banquet, an ensemble of staggering expertise who ship actually distinctive performances.
Angela and Chris are longtime school buddies whose means to open up rests virtually fully with one another and quite a lot of tequila, and Tran and Yang convey a relatable worry of decisiveness to their characters. Why make a large life resolution when you may get shitfaced along with your greatest pal as a substitute, proper? As Angela, Tran bears most likely the best emotional arc within the movie, slowly spiralling uncontrolled with out having the phrases to explain all of it, and Tran’s efficiency right here is certainly one of her greatest on-screen but. Yang expertly retains Chris’ full discomfort with dedication on monitor with hilarious bodily comedy in sudden moments — I might watch Yang unsuccessfully attempt to rapidly dress in a panic on daily basis of the week. And one of many unsung comedy heroes of the movie is Bobo Le as Chris’ party-loving cousin Kendall, an off-the-cuff observer of the occasions who permits Chris’ softer facet out.
Mashable Prime Tales
Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran in “The Wedding Banquet.”
Credit score: Bleecker Road / ShivHans Photos
In distinction, Min and Lee are open books, pissed off by the shortage of emotional maturity and dedication from their companions whereas being extraordinarily loving, affected person folks. Right here, Gladstone’s signature radiance and understatement shines by Lee, a personality inconceivable to not fall in love with of their succesful arms.
Nearly stealing the entire present is Han, whose offbeat and theatrical comedic timing as Min is solely good for the rom-com style. Traces of dialogue that ought to be throwaway moments are unexpectedly hilarious or deeply romantic delivered by Han, who brings the facility of his efficiency in South Korean homosexual drama The place Your Eyes Linger to this considerably lighter however simply as significant position.
In the meantime, Didi‘s Joan Chen is outrageously humorous and audacious as Angela’s mom, Could, a girl so publicly enthusiastic an ally and PFLAG member she will get literal awards for it. Could’s response to Angela and Min’s marriage ceremony ruse subverts many a heteronormative rom-com with outbursts like, “My daughter, marrying a man?… Why did I put years into gay activism if this is what I get?” However Angela holds deep previous resentment towards her mom for her personal lack of assist, and this internalised damage bleeds into Angela’s lack of means to speak; she refers to this as her tendency to “simmer” on issues.
Joan Chen in “The Wedding Banquet.”
Credit score: Bleecker Road / ShivHans Photos
The place The Wedding ceremony Banquet soars is how the movie treats Min’s relationship along with his grandmother Ja-Younger, with a superb efficiency by Oscar winner Youn. She impeccably balances deadpan humour with moments of quiet love and rising empathy, and scenes between Youn and Chen as two contrasting matriarchs are highlights. Over the course of the movie, Ja-Younger will get to know her grandson not as man she and her husband need him to be, however as he’s.
The Wedding ceremony Banquet is a fantastically filmed ode to queer love.
A movie that explores the complexities of cultural and queer id, The Wedding ceremony Banquet sees its characters inspecting their roots and trying to their futures. But it surely’s additionally a extremely fantastically shot ode to queer love and creating a house with discovered household.
Ahn crafts tender moments of affection and intimacy between the 2 {couples} in their very own methods: handheld close-up pictures of toes touching in mattress, of brushing tooth collectively, of gardening within the yard. The director creates a mellow, loving area in Lee’s residence for all of them, one which Min’s grandmother will ultimately see for herself. Their lives are so intertwined Angela and Lee are actually sat in the course of the room throughout a hilarious and heart-wrenching argument between Chris and Min, and Gladstone’s reactions on this scene are deeply relatable.
Finally, The Wedding ceremony Banquet is a triumph of a romantic comedy, a sensible and heartfelt replace on Lee’s ’90s traditional that explores the pressures of balancing cultural custom with LGBTQ id. Ahn’s movie leaves ample area for these fantastic characters to mess up, say the fallacious factor, and determine their subsequent steps, all with the assist and love of one another. Please let me marry this movie.
The Wedding ceremony Banquet was reviewed out of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Movie Pageant 2025 and can hit U.S. cinemas April 18.
