The Wedding Banquet (2025 | US | 103 minutes | Andrew Ahn)
Two couples, four best friends, Min (Han Gi-chan of Korean drama Where Your Eyes Linger) and Chris (Bowen Yang of Crazy Rich Asians), Angela (Kelly Marie Tran, of several Star Wars films) and Lee (Lily Gladstone of Killers of the Flower Moon), live at the same address, share their lives, and love each other. Nothing special or grand about their stories: there’s intimacy, frustrations, insecurities, and warmth; the everyday things that make us human. While Chris is working through his issues with worthiness, aimlessness and fear of the future, Angela is trying to reconcile her frustrating and hurtful relationship with her mother with the anxiety of preparing to be a mother herself as Lee’s second attempt at IVF approaches. When Min is forced into a corner by his grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung of Minari), told to return to Korea to take over the family business, he pops the question to Chris in the hopes of building a family in the US. After Chris refuses the overture, to alleviate familial pressure and offer help for Lee and Angela’s pregnancy journey, Min proposes a surface marriage with Angela. This prompts Min’s grandmother to visit and attend the sham ceremony. Tensions ignite and both couples commitment and futures are tested.
First things first, Ang Lee’s 1993 The Wedding Banquet is undisputedly a moving, progressive and beautifully told story of its own. You do not need to watch it to appreciate this new version and honestly recommend you don’t. While the underlying story may be similar (gay Asian man forced to marry a woman to appease family) the two films feel unique… separate. The first would sully the second because of the time period in which it was made. After even just watching the trailer for Lee’s 1993 version, it didn’t exactly age well. To entice white audiences there were thinly veiled racist remarks, strong anti-LGBTQ sentiment (though as a whole the film was meant to battle that) and a few other late 80’s early 90’s cringy things. Regardless, for the time, it was progressive and a necessary step to understanding the Asian-American experience, LGBTQ or not. Here’s the trailer so you can get a sense of what I mean:
Andrew Ahn has “upgraded” this story to something more modern, but just as messy, just as resonant and just as heart-rending and tender as the original. Ahn has been creating stories for over a decade that are not only relatable and get to the heart of what it is to be human, but offer a glimpse into what it is to be Asian-American (ie Fire Island and Driveways). As if this story needed any more emotional complexity, he wove in Chinese, Korean and Native American cultures to give each of the four lead characters a richness that makes this film even more delicious.
The subtle beauty and humanity that is embodied in each of the two relationships is relatable for any and every one; that underlying constant is what makes the narrative so compelling. Not only is the writing and directing top notch, but each of the actors portraying the four protagonists are so deeply immersed in their roles, it’s practically like they were made to be these characters. Once again the endearing and incredibly talented Lily Gladstone gives everything of herself to Lee, and the unspoken love between her and Tran’s Angela is so affecting. The same goes for Han’s Min and Yang’s Chris… despite the wall between them built by Chris’ fears, their affection for each other seems to be coming from every fiber of their being. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the stellar performance by Youn Yuh-jung. The inner turmoil she felt when grappling with her own history, her traditional husband’s control over the family and the desire to see her grandson happy. It was all there just below the surface, and all she had to do was give a simple look or say a few words to express it.
The long and short of it: this movie is worth skipping the drunken Easter egg hunts this year and going to the theater instead (plus, air-conditioning now that the sun has made its triumphant return to the Pacific Northwest). So I’ll leave you with this final thought… representation matters more now than ever. We need to give weight and lift up the diverse voices lost in a sea of ugly shouts from a loud minority.
The Wedding Banquet arrives in theaters today, 4/18