Ang Lee’s seminal 1993 classic The Wedding Banquet gets a millennial-era refresh in the 2025 reimagining by Andrew Ahn, a film that borrows the original’s comic conceit and cultural specificity while adding a more emotional and introspective exploration of family trauma, relationship avoidance, and the often-uncomfortable intersection of identity and expectation.
Ahn expands the central cast of characters with two sets of queer couples: Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone) are a lesbian couple ready to start a family, while their friends Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-chan) are a gay couple poised to take the next step in their relationship. In order to secure a green card in America and avoid the social stigma his Korean grandparents — especially his halmeoni (Youn Yuh-jung) — would face if he came out, Min offers to pay for Lee’s IVF treatment if Angela marries him.
Despite the ridiculous plot, The Wedding Banquet sidesteps some of the farcical comedy that the original premise invites. Almost as soon as Min’s halmeoni arrives in America, the jig is up — which is a relief as these adults seem a little too grown to be keeping up such an elaborate act for long. In fact, these characters are surprisingly grounded (especially Lee who simply wants to have a child and live a quiet life, gardening in her childhood home and wearing bright colours) in contrast to the high drama of the plot line itself. Well, that’s not 100% true: the least grounded character is Min, who exists in a slightly different sphere from the others as the only one still in school and the heir to a large and powerful conglomerate.
In this 2025 iteration of The Wedding Banquet, the core four are far from any crises about their sexualities or in need of coming out to their older relatives, but in a most millennial fashion are facing crises of self-actualization. This is especially true for Angela, who wrestles with confronting her attention-hogging mother (Joan Chen) about how she was treated by her after coming out years ago and how she is treated now as prop in her performative allyship, and Chris, who is full of self-doubt and self-loathing, which manifests as avoidance and puts a strain on his otherwise happy relationship with Min.
The film is a real patchwork of characters, tones, and situations brought on by the different backgrounds of the characters: Korean, Chinese, Indigenous, etc. There are elements of a corporate K-drama with Min’s family; an intimate family story with Angela, Lee, and Angela’s mother; and frothy wedding rom-com with a spectacular ceremony as the set piece. Unfortunately, too many characters mean that some of their arcs (Lee) and relationships (Chris and Min’s grandmother) don’t get quite enough screen time as they probably deserve, which leaves the audience wanting a little bit more to fill in the gaps.
A mostly solid cast results in some strong performances. Tran is the emotional core of the film and holds the centre effectively, even when exchanging wordless looks with Gladstone. Chen and Youn steal their scenes as the formidable, and very different, matriarchs they play. I’m not as familiar with Yang’s serious performances, which is quite a pivot from his broader comedy on SNL, but I found his acting a little less natural than that of the others.
If I may air one silly little gripe, however, it’s that there are simply not enough food shots in The Wedding Banquet. (Excuse me, but the word “banquet” is literally in the title!) It’s a universal truth that all great Asian movies must have indelible food scenes. We don’t even get to see what Angela’s mother samples when she joins the dining table with Min’s grandmother.
Despite its unevenness and the missed opportunity to lean into the culinary delights its title promises, The Wedding Banquet is a heartfelt reimagining of the 1990s cult classic that trades silliness for sincerity and delivers a nuanced portrait of a queer, millennial, found family that reminds us of how different things are today and how they are also the same.
