The Wedding Banquet: Asian-American LGBTQ love story serves up surprises

This remake of Ang Lee’s seminal 1993 comedy is a tender, at times thought provoking, look at the cultural and generational tension in the Asian-American LGBTQ community.

A scene from The Wedding Banquet

The Wedding Banquet (M)
104 minutes
In cinemas

★★★

“My own daughter … marrying a man!”

“My grandfather is the biggest gay hater in Korea.”

“We’ve got to de-queer the house.”

These lines from The Wedding Banquet go to the cultural and generational tensions of this well-written romantic comedy-drama set in the Asian-American LGBTQ community.

The first comes from May Chen (Joan Chen), whose daughter Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) is in a live-in relationship with Lee (Lily Gladstone). They want to have a child and Lee is undergoing IVF treatment.

May is a leading advocate in Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays, but she wasn’t always this way. “I hate that people think you’re a good mother,” her daughter tells her.

The second is from Min (Han Gi-chan), a handsome Korean artist in a serious relationship with Chris (Bowen Yang). He’s on an about-to-expire visa and his wealthy grandparents want him to return home to join the family business empire.

Han Gi-chan, Youn Yuh-jung and Kelly Marie Tran in The Wedding Banquet. Picture: Luka Cyprian, Bleecker Street

The third comes from Chris when the four young lovers, who share the same house in Seattle, learn that Min’s grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung) is making a lightning visit from South Korea. The reason? Min has told her he’s about to marry Angela.

So we have two men who love each other, one of whom needs a green card; two women who love each other and want to have a baby; their older relatives; and some fast and loose ideas on how to make all of this happen.

It’s complicated by the fact Angela and Chris had a one-night stand in their university days.

It’s further complicated, in one of the best scenes, by what happens between them in the present.

Angela and Lee, too, have undiscussed issues. And the mother and grandmother have secrets to tell.

Joan Chen in The Wedding Banquet. Picture: Luka Cyprian, Bleecker Street

What unfolds is an entertaining, tender and at times thought-provoking story centred on queer relationships and family expectations. As the plot thickens, all four young lovers start to question their own feelings and reassess their own wants and needs.

All the actors are good, especially Gi-chan as Min and Yuh-jung as his grandmother.

This movie is directed and co-written by American filmmaker Andrew Ahn. It’s a remake of a 1993 film directed by Ang Lee. The screenwriter, James Schamus, worked on each film.

As the title suggests, there is a wedding. What’s served at the banquet, though, is not quite what anyone expects.