The first trailer for the remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 classic The Wedding Banquet has been released, and it’s a whole new world. This time around, the story follows two queer couples – gay couple Chris (Bowen Yang) & Min (Han Gi-chan), and lesbian couple Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone) – living under the same roof.
Angela and Lee are struggling to pay for IVF treatments, while Min, the closeted heir to a corporate empire, is facing a visa expiration. When Chris rejects Min’s proposal, Min offers a green card marriage to Angela in exchange for funding Lee’s IVF. But their plans for a quiet elopement are upended when Min’s grandmother arrives from Korea and insists on a lavish wedding.
This modern take on The Wedding Banquet tackles the challenges and joys of queer love and family in a way that is both timely and timeless. The film stars an all-Asian cast and is directed by Andrew Ahn (“Spa Night,” “Fire Island”), who has established himself as one of the most prominent chroniclers of queer Asian-American life on film.
Read more: ‘The Wedding Banquet’ Remake: First Look Photos Revealed
Ahn’s previous works include the coming-of-age drama Spa Night and the bawdy rom-com Fire Island. He considers the original The Wedding Banquet a crucial inspiration, not just as a filmmaker making queer films but as an Asian-American man living a queer life.
“It’s a film that I saw when I was eight years old,” Ahn told GQ last year. “My family and I were at a video rental store and my mom saw the VHS for The Wedding Banquet and said, ‘Oh, this is that movie about Asian people that white people are watching. We should see what it’s about.’ And so, we rented it—not knowing that it was actually a queer film—and watched the film. And as a nascent gay boy, not really aware of my sexuality in a conscious way, it stuck with me. I’ve never forgotten it. And I think it was because, deep down inside, I knew that I was queer.”
Later, when Ahn rewatched the film in college, it took on a deeper resonance. “What I find so special about Ang Lee’s Wedding Banquet is that this question of sexuality and culture and family, they’re all affecting each other,” he said.
“I love the reality that our romantic relationships, especially when you start building something more profound, something deeper, your partner starts interacting with your parents. What does that mean? And then they have to understand your culture and how you grew up and, what are the rituals? And as a Korean-American person, it’s something that I think is part of my queerness… When I came to the realization consciously that I’m gay, in college, I really wanted to tell my parents first because I didn’t want them to find out some other way and feel betrayed.”
Reflecting on the opportunity to remake the classic, Ahn said: “I’ve been so inspired throughout my entire career to tell stories that really try and reconcile both an Asian-American identity with a queer identity, and thinking about how those two things can sit within the same person comfortably. And so, now that I get to make a remake, it feels very full circle to me… It’s The Wedding Banquet I’ve thought about for years—not necessarily to remake it, but just as something that really talks about the intersectional identities of who we are.”
The Wedding Banquet premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews and is set to hit theaters on April 18th.
Photo: Bleeker Street
