The Wedding Banquet remake gives romcom modern spin
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The Wedding Banquet team with Sundance Film Festival’s director of programming Kim Yutani (centre) at the film’s premiere on Jan 27. From left are Youn Yuh-jung, Han Gi-chan, Joan Chen, Andrew Ahn, Kelly Marie Tran, Bowen Yang and Bobo Le.
PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON – The Wedding Banquet, a reimagining of Taiwanese director Lee Ang’s Oscar-nominated 1993 film of the same name, will resonate with a new generation, says its star-studded ensemble cast.
The romantic comedy is directed by American film-maker Andrew Ahn, and co-written and produced by American screenwriter-producer James Schamus.
Schamus also co-wrote and produced the original film, which starred Taiwanese actor Winston Chao, former Taiwanese actress May Chin and American actor Mitchell Lichtenstein.
The 2025 film is set in Seattle, United States, and centres on two same-sex couples and close friends – Angela and Lee, played by American actresses Kelly Marie Tran and Lily Gladstone; and Chris and Min, played by American actor Bowen Yang and South Korean newcomer Han Gi-chan.
The plot revolves around Angela and Lee, who are trying to have a baby, but costly in-vitro fertilisation treatments block their dream of becoming parents.
Meanwhile, Min, the heir of a wealthy South Korean business family, is nearing the end of his student visa stay and proposes to his long-term partner Chris. But when commitment-averse Chris turns him down, Min offers to fund Angela and Lee’s treatment in exchange for a green card marriage.
“It’s been 32 years since the original film came out. A lot has changed in queer life,” said Yang of Saturday Night Live and Wicked (2024) fame at The Wedding Banquet’s London premiere on March 19. “I feel like Andrew updated this in such a clever way to check in with how we feel about marriage these days as queer people.”
Gladstone, Oscar-nominated for her performance in American director Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023), described The Wedding Banquet as a tribute to her mother, who lost a baby boy before giving birth to her.
“Knowing how much miscarriage and infertility affected my mum and affect a lot of women I know, I wasn’t sure I was ready to explore any of that,” the 38-year-old said. “That little lifelong pang of knowing that there may have been a brother that I missed out on, but getting to reconcile and find a version of what we both feel he would have been like in this film, was just a little extra magic.”
Ahn’s fresh ideas compelled Schamus, 65, and Lee, 70, to give their blessing to the project.
“My favourite part of being a part of this new movie was not looking too much back,” said Schamus. “This is not a nostalgia trip for me.”
Ahn, 39, initially had reservations about making the film.
Lee’s version was the first gay film he saw as a youngster, Ahn said, which had a profound impact on him. Getting to explore the themes of marriage and children that many in his community were wrestling with convinced him to go ahead.
“Pressure, that’s there. But because I found something really personal to talk about in this new film, I felt like I had a creative North Star that I could always rely on,” Ahn said. “I wanted to do something a little different, but building off of the philosophy of the original.”
The film also stars Oscar-winning South Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung as Min’s grandmother, whose unexpected arrival creates tension and chaos among the couples, and veteran American actress Joan Chen as Angela’s activist mother May.
The premiere on March 19 marked the opening of the 39th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, which runs till March 30 with a programme made up of 56 features, 81 shorts and a television series from 41 countries. REUTERS
