The Wedding Banquet
(2025 | USA | 103 minutes | Andrew Ahn)

I found so much about Andrew Ahn’s American update of Ang Lee’s classic to be incredibly confusing. This one is set in Seattle (primarily filmed in Vancouver, albeit enhanced with B-roll cutaways to Seattle institutions and vistas), but the the central conflict remains grounded in a young protagonist finding himself in sudden need of a green card.

Here, though, it’s a Korean fine arts graduate student (Han Gi-chan, charming but far out of his depth). Although his academic work involves making things from gorgeous textiles, for reasons unspecified he absolutely does not want to assume what should be a coveted role as the Creative Director for his family’s vast collection of fashion brands. Despite updating the story to the present day, a homophobic grandfather is involved in needing to keep his identity a secret to his family to maintain his inheritance. Instead, he paradoxically attempts to stay in the US by proposing to his long-term boyfriend (Bow Yang, funny as ever) who refuses to marry him because … reasons. With this easy route taken off the table by a commitment-phobic partner, he instead proposes to that same boyfriend’s best friend (Kelly Marie Tran), a lesbian also in a long term relationship with a prominent Queer activist in exchange for money for a third IVF attempt.

As the girlfriend who’s been unsuccessfully trying to become pregnant while draining her bank account due to the absurdity of the US healthcare system (maybe this is why the story had to be set in “Seattle”), the always exceptional Lily Gladstone displays her immense talent to convey deeply complex emotions with few words. She’s fantastic, but there’s a degree to which this only spotlights the very different styles of acting on display, leaving the farcical premise painfully disjointed between light humor and rich emotion. Similar contrasts abound in the supporting cast: Joan Chen is a fun presence as an all-in PFLAG Tiger Mom, but only the “legendary” Youn Yuh-jung surpasses Gladstone’s performance. Whenever she’s on screen, you can feel her supreme talents vaguely bending the scattershot material to her will. In her tremendous scenes, the whole mess begins to vaguely make sense, at least emotionally.

The Wedding Banquet played as an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It has additional screenings in Park City and Salt Lake City throughout the festival.