It takes some guts to follow in the footsteps of writer James Schamus and director Ang Lee, but Andrew Ahn has achieved something pretty special here with his big-hearted reinterpretation of the pair’s 1993 arthouse hit The Wedding Banquet. Its unapologetic approach to all the which-ways of human attraction might be a bit full-on for mainstream audiences (it’s hard to imagine something so otherwise wholesome being any gayer), but don’t be surprised to see Ahn’s film pop up in the awards conversation this time next year, even if it doesn’t do Crazy Rich Asians figures at the box office.
The particular stroke of genius at play here is that Ahn has actually put some thought into the way the original story—in which a closeted gay Taiwanese-American man goes through with a fake straight marriage to please his conservative parents—could maintain its relevance so far into the age of gay marriage. His workarounds are ingenious and very funny, and his biggest changes see a playful inversion of traditionally uptight Asian stereotypes.
First out of the gate is Mae-chen (Joan Chen), who we see receiving an Ally Award at a LGBTQ+ event in her native Seattle. Far from being ashamed of her gay daughter Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and her girlfriend Lee (Lily Gladstone), Mae-chen is exhilarated, laughing about the time she caught the young Angela watching lesbian porn, only to receive the pitiful excuse that she was actually watching a figure-drawing art class. Mae-chen also talks loudly about the couple’s recent attempt to get pregnant with I.V.F., their second try, using a highfalutin Taiwanese Yale grad as a donor (“His sperm was very expensive,” she purrs). As they fear, Mae-chen’s enthusiasm is a jinx, and Lee only has one more course of treatment left before the clinic closes her file for good.
Angela lives with Lee in her partner’s late father’s house, which they share with downstairs neighbours Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-Chan). It’s a cordial household, but the peace and quiet is broken one night by an unexpected commotion: Min has proposed to the clearly commitment-phobic Chris, and Chris is freaking out. In his defence, Chris knows that Min’s student visa is about to expire, and that his wealthy grandma (Youn Yuh-jung) is about to yank him back to Korea to take up a job in the family business. This is true, but Min is not after a Green Card. “I asked you because I thought you would say yes,” he says.
Chris goes out for a boozy evening with Angela, an old friend from college, returning to find that Min and Lee have been scheming. To keep his grandmother at bay and stay in America, Min shifts the object of his proposal to Angela, offering to pay for Lee’s last round of I.V.F. in return for citizenship. It’s not ideal, but it’s not ridiculous either, and so all four friends decide to go all-in.
There’s only one problem; Min’s grandmother is coming over from Korea and insists on staying with Min and his fiancée, precipitating a mass clear out of anything incriminating, from CDs and DVDs to a poster advertising the all-female music festival Lilith Fair (“Everything in this house is GAY,” screams Angela). Needless to say, Mae-chen is horrified by the news of Angela’s impending nuptials: “I put years into campaigning for gay marriage,” she says, “and this is what I get. My daughter is marrying a man”.
But grandma has a more surprising response, which is where the film leaves the train tracks and really comes into its own. And Ahn has another trick up his sleeve, a bombshell twist that slyly comes into play on the couple’s happy day.
Sadly, it doesn’t quite sustain its opening momentum, since the revamped premise leaves a lot less room for the sophisticated farce of the original and the ending ties up a few dangling loose ends just a little bit too neatly. But this particular Wedding Banquet 2.0 is about journey more than destination; between the core cast of six, this really is an ensemble piece, and the comedy springs, almost sitcom-like, from the sparks that fly between them.
Best of all though, are the matriarchs; Joan Chen, as ever, leaves us wanting more, while the Youn Yuh-jung—so brilliant in Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, not to mention E J-yong’s terrific 2009 meta piece Actresses—is, once again, this charming film’s M.V.P. You won’t cry laughing but you may laugh crying. This, one suspects, is what Andrew Ahn was gunning for all along.
Title: The Wedding Banquet
Festival: Sundance (Premieres)
Distributor: Bleecker Street
Director: Andrew Ahn
Screenwriters Andrew Ahn, James Schamus
Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan, Joan Chen, Youn Yuh-jung
Running time: 1 hr 43 mins