Andrew Ahn's The Wedding Banquet is a heartwarming and hilarious rom-com that follows the lives of four queer POC friends navigating love, family, and cultural expectations. With a fresh take on the classic rom-com formula and a talented ensemble cast, the film offers a delightful and relatable story for everyone.
For years, gay people have been asking for queer stories that don’t 1) center around trauma and 2) take place several decades ago. There’s nothing wrong with a period piece, of course — and darker, more dramatic stories that deal with the pain of coming out and existing as an LGBTQ+ person are still important — but we deserve fun, modern rom-coms as much as the next person! Luckily, Andrew Ahn ’s The Wedding Banquet is exactly that.
What Is ‘The Wedding Banquet’ About? A remake of the 1993 film of the same name, The Wedding Banquet follows a quartet of main characters. There’s Angela (Kelly Marie Tran), a scientist with a strained relationship with her mother (Joan Chen), an aggressively enthusiastic ally. Her partner, Lee (Lily Gladstone), works at an LGBTQ+ resource center and is the more nurturing and communicative of the two. Angela’s commitment-phobic and decision-paralyzed best friend from college, Chris (Bowen Yang), is an academic on a break from academia, guiding birdwatching tours instead of finishing his dissertation. His boyfriend, Min (Han Gi-chan), is an art teacher — much to the dismay of his wealthy grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung) — and the two live in Angela and Lee’s garage. The four of them have built a nice little life together, though two large things threaten that. For one, Angela and Lee have gone through multiple failed rounds of IVF and are suffering the financial consequences. The clock is ticking for Min as well, with his visa about to expire. Min’s grandmother tells him that unless he quits his teaching job in order to work for the family company, he will have to move back to Korea. With Chris unwilling to marry him so he can get his green card, Min hatches a plan: he will pay Angela to marry him so that he can stay in the US and she and Lee can have enough money to try for a baby again. If that weren’t a risky enough plan, Min’s grandmother makes a surprise visit to meet Angela, adding more fuel to this chaotic fire. ‘The Wedding Banquet’ Is an Old-School Rom-Com With a Fresh Touch The Wedding Banquet doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to the rom-com formula, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, Ahn cleverly subverts well-worn tropes — forbidden love! Opposites attract! Fake dating! — by modernizing them, giving everything a spin that feels truly fresh. That there is a group of four queer POC friends is revolutionary in and of itself — and unfortunately so in this day and age when we should have been getting a lot more of these stories a lot earlier. Still, the fact that all of their experiences are allowed to intersect onscreen, and without a straight white perspective in the mix, inherently means The Wedding Banquet is bringing something new to the table. The dynamic between Angela and Chris being the beginning and centerpiece of this group is even lovely to see, as gay men and women are often either isolated from or pitted against one another. The Wedding Banquet is a love letter to the people it represents, particularly the queer and AAPI communities. Sure, there are moving scenes that showcase this on an emotional level, but it’s the humor that, to me, makes this even more evident. The jokes poke fun at stereotypes in a way that feels both authentic and affectionate, with Ahn’s voice and perspective shining through. One of the funniest scenes, for instance, involves the group frantically attempting to “de-gay” the house, getting rid of things like a The Half of It DVD, Elliot Page’s memoir, and suggestive lesbian art. It’s these little details that show the care and understanding of the community it’s highlighting. Though LGBTQ+ and AAPI people will be able to relate to the characters in a unique way, The Wedding Banquet is truly accessible to everyone and explores universal themes of connection, community, and family. The humor is sharp, with multiple laugh-out-loud moments, and while the emotional beats probably won’t hit quite hard enough to make you ugly cry, there’s a good chance you’ll at least tear up — particularly during scenes with the film’s matriarchs, who emerge as the best part of the movie. The Wedding Banquet is about love at its core — and don’t get me wrong, the romance and friendship are both executed wonderfully — but the film’s focus on motherhood is sneakily its strongest aspect. ‘The Wedding Banquet’ Features An Incredible Ensemble The film truly is a banquet of talent, with each actor bringing their own special flavor to the plate. Needless to say, they’re all highly satisfying together. It’s particularly delightful to see Yang and Gladstone get a chance to play somewhat against type. While Yang still gets plenty of chances to be his hilarious self, this is a meaty role for him, and he shines just as brightly in the dramatic moment
Andrew Ahn The Wedding Banquet LGBTQ+ Rom-Com Queer Representation AAPI Relationships Family Comedy Drama
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