If ever there was a time for a sweet and tender film populated by queer characters designed and portrayed with honesty and respect, this is the time. Director Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet is the biggest surprise of the Spring movie season: a modern update of a 1993 queer classic that pays respect to the original while finding relevance to the continuing struggles of the LGBTQ+ community. While not as revolutionary as the original, Ahn’s film is an important work that examines identity and cultural tradition with humor and heart. 

Ang Lee’s original film of the same name was a groundbreaking work back in 93. A box office hit for Independent Cinema (making almost 25 million off a budget of 1 million), Lee and his filmmaking partner, James Schamus, created a fresh and poignant piece that dealt honestly with life in the queer communities. The film tied for the Golden Bear at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival with Fei Xie’s Woman Sesame Oil Maker and was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1994. For over 30 years, the picture has been a respected turning point in Queer cinema. To update/remake/reimagine such a treasure would be a fool’s errand. 

Ahn wrote the screenplay with James Schamus, who co-authored and produced the 1993 original, expanding on that film’s themes and characters. While the basics of Lee and Schamus’s original work are still there, The Wedding Banquet focuses on two queer Seattle couples (rather than Lee’s one New York City-based couple), examining their relationships with friends and family and how traditions and expectations color their personal truths. 

Han Gi-Chan is Min, a gay Korean man who needs a green card to stay in America. Min is an artist and does not want to return to Korea to take over his wealthy family’s business, an expectation of which his grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung, the first Korean to win an Oscar) reminds him. He cannot marry his boyfriend of five years, Chris (Bowen Yang), as his homophobic grandfather would end Min’s access to the family’s wealth that allows him to live comfortably while creating art. 

Min and Chris live on their best friends’ property. Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) are a lesbian couple who live together in Lee’s family home. Lee has been trying to conceive, but two IVF treatments have failed. The two already took out a second mortgage on the home to pay for the first two rounds and can’t afford to try again. Even if they could, another failure would be too painful for them both, especially Lee, the one who would be carrying the child. 

Both couples are in love but neither are free from deeper issues that could jeopardize their unions. Lee is emotionally crushed by the thought of never being able to be a mother. Min is terrified of losing his green card status and having to return to his homeland to live an unwanted life where he will have to hide his sexuality from his family. Chris is deeply committed to Min, but fears marriage. Angela is terrified of becoming a mother due to her selfish and opportunistic mom, played by Joan Chen, in another wonderful turn. 

As everyone’s lives are in a snowballing turmoil, Min offers to pay for Lee’s next IVF treatment if Angela will marry him. After everyone agrees, this doesn’t prove to be the easy fix Min hoped for, as his grandmother announces she is coming to Seattle to make sure Angela isn’t a gold digger. Of course, grandma knows something is not right with any of this.  

While the film has flashes of modern rom-com movie clichés, Ahn and Schamus have too much respect for their characters (and, thankfully, their audience). Save for a silly pop song-driven montage of the four leads scrambling to hide all references to queerness that litter the house before Min’s grandmother arrives and a couple of moments of misplaced comedy, The Wedding Banquet never loses its honest intentions. There is a lightheartedness to the film but one that finds symmetry with the story’s romantic inclinations and deeper messages. 

The two couple’s relationships are genuine and not cluttered with overly mannered quirks found in 99 percent of Hollywood romantic comedies. Han Gi-Chan is terrific as Min, a sweet soul who just wants to live his truth and be with his friends on a journey to a happy life. Bowen Yang has proven his supreme talents as a comic actor on SNL and in last year’s smash musical Wicked and has shown his larger range in director Ahn’s underrated 2022 film, Fire Island. As Chris, Yang skillfully portrays the concerns of being a gay man in 2024 while committing to a relatable character whose self-doubt could sabotage all that is good in his life.

With Angela, Kelly Marie Tran finally has a chance to show her infectious screen presence and give a fully rounded portrayal. The actress’s effortless ability to capture the character’s ever-changing emotional arcs is done with a grounded sense of reality. Lily Gladstone gives another textured performance that embraces integrity and compassion. Lee is an Indigenous lesbian who wants to be a mother and to share parenthood with her partner. Gladstone’s work is a naturalistic treasure. Each of the four leads compliment one another’s work, never allowing for anything phony or contrived to infect the portrayal of this group of friends. 

Youn Yuh-jung could be on her way to another fruitful awards season. There is such beauty in her performance. When the grandmother comes into Min’s life in America, seemingly to disrupt, it is immediately clear how deeply she cares for his well-being. Her stern demeanor hides a kind soul who wants the best for her grandson. Yuh-jung’s quiet strength and warm heart infuses the performance with a gentle kindness that is deeply moving.

It is never wise to remake an already respected film, especially one that has made such an impact. Andrew Ahn and James Schamus haven’t rehashed Lee’s film. They have restructured the story to speak to today’s LGBTQ+ generation. There is drama and comedy, but their film is never heavy-handed nor is the comedy of the screwball manner. The laughs, anger, and tears come from a real place. Ahn and Schamus allow the viewer to become a part of this makeshift family through a screenplay that is rich in detail and a strong sense of personality. The director guides his main cast through their characters’ lives with a confidence that allows every emotion to feel natural.

The nature of love and relationships, friendship and understanding, and living one’s true self are the beating hearts that give this film life. 

The Wedding Banquet is a warm and loving film that doesn’t set out to be a pushback to the current climate of hate against the LGBTQ+ communities. This is a picture that deals honestly with queer relationships, cultural expectations, and reconciliation of oneself. The characters are crafted with care while the actors create truthful portrayals of modern souls deserving of love.

That the film will touch so many who need to hear its message is a beautiful thing. That it will enrage those who seek to erase the rights and very existence of LGBTQ+ people is priceless.  

The Wedding Banquet

Written by Andrew Ahn & James Schamus (Based on a screenplay by Ang Lee, Neil Peng, and James Schamus)

Directed by Andrew Ahn

Starring Han Gi-Chan, Kelly Marie Tran, Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Youn Yuh-jung, Joan Chen

R, 102 Minutes, Bleecker Street Media, Kindred Spirit, ShivHan Pictures