Remaking Ang Lee's award-winning 1993 queer rom-com The Wedding Banquet is no mean feat, but Fire Island's Andrew Ahn makes a masterclass of it.
A wholehearted, hilarious approach to Lee's rambunctious narrative, The Wedding Banquet balances the pressures of cultural traditions and family expectations with the liberation and joy of found family. Boasting a veritable feast of a cast delivering impeccable, funny, and moving performances, the film is a deeply romantic tale about a brilliant ruse that spins out of control. But there's clarity (and love) to be found in the chaos for these wonderful characters.
What is The Wedding Banquet about?
The Wedding Banquet centres on two gay couples who are friends, each with major life hurdles ahead of them — and a proposal that could prove a temporary solution to it all. Ahn teams up with Lee's co-writer James Schamus to move the original film's New York-set narrative to Seattle, and the pair expand on the tension between cultural tradition, family, and queer identity in the present day.
Killers of the Flower Moon's Lily Gladstone and The Last Jedi star Kelly Marie Tran play Lee and Angela, lesbians who are struggling with their IVF journey and its towering costs. Wicked star Bowen Yang and Our Song's Han Gi-Chan play gay couple Chris and Min, who are navigating differing levels of commitment and Min's looming student visa expiry. A talented artist who is not out to his wealthy Korean family, Min is faced with a conundrum: become the head of one of his grandparents' companies or be forced to return to Korea. And while Min plans to propose to his love of five years, Chris, Min's grandfather would likely cut him off financially if they got married.
So, for the ultimate win-win, the four decide on a deal: Min and Angela will get a green-card marriage if Min pays for Angela and Lee's IVF expenses with his family's money. With a city hall appointment in the diary, everything's on course. But when Min's grandmother Ja-Young (Pachinko and Minari screen legend Youn Yuh-jung) arrives to meet her grandson's betrothed and help plan the ceremony, the wedding scheme levels up in stress, extravagance, and comedic potential. There's just one hour for the group to "de-queer the house," and Chris, Lee, and Angela are thrown into a flurry of swiftly removing the house's wealth of Tegan and Sara and Elliot Page books, The L Word DVDs, and Lilith Fair posters. Will it work?
The cast of The Wedding Banquet are sublime.
You cannot ask for better than the cast of The Wedding Banquet, an ensemble of staggering talent who deliver truly exceptional performances.
Angela and Chris are longtime college friends whose ability to open up rests almost entirely with each other and a lot of tequila, and Tran and Yang bring a relatable fear of decisiveness to their characters. Why make a giant life decision when you can get shitfaced with your best friend instead, right? As Angela, Tran bears probably the greatest emotional arc in the film, slowly spiralling out of control without having the words to describe it all, and Tran's performance here is one of her best on-screen yet. Yang expertly keeps Chris' complete discomfort with commitment on track with hilarious physical comedy in unexpected moments — I would watch Yang unsuccessfully try to quickly get dressed in a panic every day of the week. And one of the unsung comedy heroes of the film is Bobo Le as Chris' party-loving cousin Kendall, a casual observer of the events who allows Chris' softer side out.
In contrast, Min and Lee are open books, frustrated by the lack of emotional maturity and commitment from their partners while being extremely loving, patient people. Here, Gladstone's signature radiance and understatement shines through Lee, a character impossible not to fall in love with in their capable hands.
Almost stealing the whole show is Han, whose offbeat and theatrical comedic timing as Min is simply perfect for the rom-com genre. Lines of dialogue that should be throwaway moments are unexpectedly hilarious or deeply romantic delivered by Han, who brings the power of his performance in South Korean gay drama Where Your Eyes Linger to this significantly lighter but just as meaningful role.
Meanwhile, Didi's Joan Chen is outrageously funny and audacious as Angela's mother, May, a woman so publicly enthusiastic an ally and PFLAG member she gets literal awards for it. May's reaction to Angela and Min's wedding 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?" But Angela holds deep past resentment toward her mother for her private lack of support, and this internalised hurt bleeds into Angela's lack of ability to communicate; she refers to this as her tendency to "simmer" on things.
Where The Wedding Banquet soars is how the film treats Min's relationship with his grandmother Ja-Young, with a brilliant performance by Oscar winner Youn. She impeccably balances deadpan humour with moments of quiet love and growing empathy, and scenes between Youn and Chen as two contrasting matriarchs are highlights. Over the course of the film, Ja-Young gets to know her grandson not as man she and her husband want him to be, but as he is.
The Wedding Banquet is a beautifully filmed ode to queer love.
A film that explores the complexities of cultural and queer identity, The Wedding Banquet sees its characters examining their roots and looking to their futures. But it's also a really beautifully shot ode to queer love and creating a home with found family.
Ahn crafts tender moments of love and intimacy between the two couples in their own ways: handheld close-up shots of toes touching in bed, of brushing teeth together, of gardening in the backyard. The director creates a mellow, loving space in Lee's home for them all, one which Min's grandmother will eventually see for herself. Their lives are so intertwined Angela and Lee are literally sat in the middle of the room during a hilarious and heart-wrenching argument between Chris and Min, and Gladstone's reactions in this scene are deeply relatable.
Ultimately, The Wedding Banquet is a triumph of a romantic comedy, a smart and heartfelt update on Lee's '90s classic that explores the pressures of balancing cultural tradition with LGBTQ identity. Ahn's film leaves ample space for these wonderful characters to mess up, say the wrong thing, and figure out their next steps, all with the support and love of each other. Please let me marry this film.
The Wedding Banquet was reviewed out of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2025 and will hit U.S. cinemas April 18.
