A sweet and funny remake you want to marry.
The plot of Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet” from 1993 regards a bisexual Taiwanese man who marries a Chinese woman to get her a green card, but when his parents come to the United States, he must hide his male lover from them. It’s set in New York.
The plot of Andrew Ahn’s (“Driveways,” “Fire Island”) remake now regards two lesbians trying and failing to have a baby via IVF, while their gay Korean friend needs to marry one of them to keep his citizenship, but agrees to help fund their next IVF appointment. And this guy proposed to his boyfriend twice for the record. It’s set in Seattle.
Study the differences carefully, and you will acknowledge that Lee’s version comes from a time before he became so spoiled and lost his way, and Ahn’s version is suitable for the 2020s. The original was more low-key, authentic, and speaks mostly in Mandarin, while this version is more elaborate, outspoken, and speaks mostly in English. And both films from different generations are delightful and truthful.
There has been a lot of homophobia presented in comedies back in the day, and I recall the audience being grossed out by Sacha Baron Cohen’s gay character in “Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” But while there is some homophobia still going on today, I think we’re now in a time when we have shown our love and respect for the LGBTQIA2S+ community. I have been showing my absolute respect for them for years, and I apologize for how things were back then.
I think this “Wedding Banquet” comes at a great time, and manages to overpower whatever cynicism may come out of it. But it also delivers on two different kinds of romances can come together and form complications, whether they’re funny or serious. And it works on both equations.
The lesbians are Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone), and the gay boyfriends are Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-chan in his first movie role). Let me give you the scoop on them. Lee is the one who wants to go through the IVF procedures. Angie is the one whose mother (Joan Chen) suddenly becomes a gay activist, years after disowning her for coming out of the closet. Chris is the one who can’t commit to anything, and he’s the one who denies his lover’s marriage proposal. And Min is the one who finds out from his grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung) that his student visa is expiring, and he needs to marry someone in order to get his green card.
The problems for both opposite sexes is that getting another IVF is too expensive, and Min’s grandfather is a homophobic. So, he’s the one who decides to marry Angela and agree to finance their next IVF.
Some night club scenes go on a little long as do some melodramas, but there’s a lot of other things to acknowledge, such as the chemistry between Angela and Chris what it leads to, and the respective family relationships in between. Besides, the fake marriage doesn’t really set the film’s rising action.
“The Wedding Banquet” is sweet, respectful, and often very funny, regarding Min and Angela pretending to be a couple and how Chris interprets things within his relationship with Min. And the performances in the cast (pertaining to Tran, Gladstone, Yang, Gi-chan, Yuh-jung, and Chen) are universally excellent, whether they’re speaking English or Korean. They follow certain rules of the 1993 films, but they also take different angles that are not irritating, but honest and cultural.
It’s nice to see a remake that doesn’t flip off the original, but allows both sexes to have voices. There’s a lot of gay pride presented here, and it’s a rainbow.
