Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, and Han Gi-chan lead a convoluted queer rom-com with a lot of heart but little focus…
Director Andrew Ahn surprised audiences when he unleashed the talents of Bowen Yang and an all-star queer cast onto the world stage with the heartwarming friendship tale Fire Island. The 2022 romantic comedy, based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, was a love letter to queer friendship and showcased Yang’s ability to take on leading man status in an ensemble film. Ahn’s independent roots are strong, and the gifted director has set his sights on a new adaptation: The Wedding Banquet.
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, The Wedding Banquet is a modern take on Ang Lee’s 1993 movie of the same name. Bowen Yang stars as Chris, the marriage-phobic boyfriend of Min (Han Gi-chan), a Seattle-based artist who comes from a wealthy Korean business-focused family. Chris’s best friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) has been in a long-term relationship with Lee (Lily Gladstone), and the two attempt to have a baby via in vitro fertilization to no avail.
Min’s grandmother (Academy Award-winner Youn Yuh-jung) wants him to take on a leadership position at their company, but Min is reluctant. She understands that he’s gay but refuses to let Min’s grandfather in on the secret, complicating matters entirely. In order for Min’s visa to get renewed so he can stay in the United States and keep his wealth, he must marry a woman his grandfather approves of and hide his relationship with Chris.
The Wedding Banquet kicks into high gear when Min devises a plan to marry Angela and stage traditional wedding photos to appease his traditional family unit. After much back-and-forth, Angela agrees, though she discovers that she is pregnant during all of the shenanigans. What could be set up as a comedy of errors quickly turns into a dramatic premise filled with cheating, hurt emotions, commitment issues, and adherence to a chosen family.
Andrew Ahn’s take on The Wedding Banquet restructures a whacky premise built on conventional principles and destroys what made the 1993 version so beloved. The early 1990s were a difficult time for the queer community with apprehension about HIV, and the original Taiwanese film gave a comedic edge to traditions clashing with modern changes. But here, Ahn and co-writer James Schamus (who also co-wrote the 1993 movie) strive to bring the comedy by illustrating the breakdown of the chosen family at the center of the story rather than the old guard traditions of their Asian roots.
Actress Joan Chen shines as Angela’s open-minded yet overbearing mother, May Chen, often an attendee at a PFLAG meeting or awards gala for LGBTQ+ support. But her time in the film is overshadowed by a lengthy, drawn-out struggle between Yang’s Chris and his apprehension to live a long life with Min. Gladstone is dangerously underutilized in a role lacking any meaningful clarity and human approach to pregnancy and romantic commitment, an unremarkable follow-up to her Oscar-nominated work in Killers of the Flower Moon.
The Wedding Banquet delights its audience with much-needed laughs and some tearful moments embodied by a capable ensemble cast, but the attempts at updating the story for a modern queer audience leave a lot of the characters yearning for more depth. Yang’s character, in particular, leans heavily on cliches when it comes to not committing, leading to a climactic ending that doesn’t feel deserved. Audiences are taken on a Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice ride that isn’t as heartfelt as it intends to be, leaving behind a complex web of interpersonal relationships that suffer from a deficient amount of clarity but also bringing some laughs in between.
It’s a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy that lacks the humanity of its source material while giving some of its skillful cast members time to shine.
The Wedding Banquet releases theatrically across the country on Friday, April 18, 2025.
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