Bringing children into the world and raising them is generally considered one of life’s great joys. But for some hopeful parents-to-be, just “letting things happen” isn’t an option. Gay couples may choose to adopt, or figure out some kind of family arrangement outside the longstanding one-mommy, one-daddy equation. And same-sex couples often face fertility challenges, just as hetero couples do. Add the expectations of would-be grandparents into the mix, and it’s a wonder any child ever gets born at all.
The Wedding Banquet, Andrew Ahn’s updated rendering of Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy-drama of the same name, uses those complex dreams and dashed hopes as a starting point to talk about everything that unites rather than divides us in modern America, a place where being gay is wholly accepted, unless it isn’t, and all sorts of families are cherished, unless they aren’t. Toss in cultural differences, and disaster is sure to ensue.
But in its joyous way, this new Wedding Banquet reassures us that nothing worthwhile is ever easy. It’s a fun, open-hearted picture, and even if it lacks the wistful subtlety of the original, it ends up on the same landing note: the people we love best are always worth fighting for.
Bowen Yang and Han Gi-Chan play Chris and Min, a seemingly solid Seattle couple—until Min’s very rich grandmother, Ja-Young (Youn Yuh-jung, of Minari), who’s been bankrolling his stay in the U.S., threatens to bring him back to Korea to run the family business. Meanwhile, Min and Chris’ closest friends, Kelly Marie Tran’s Angela, a research scientist, and Lily Gladstone’s Lee, an Indigenous community organizer, have been struggling to conceive a child; Lee has just found out that her second round of IVF has been unsuccessful. Together, the four hatch a plan: Angela will marry Min, so he can legally stay in the country, and in return, Min will finance Lee’s costly IVF treatments. Though the scheme ought to work, it’s scrambled when Ja-Young touches down in Seattle for a surprise visit, eager to stage a traditional Korean wedding for her grandson and his bride: she has no idea Min is gay, and hiding the truth from her is essential, or at least Min believes so.
Ahn, director of the 2022 romantic comedy Fire Island, and James Schamus, who also co-wrote the first movie, have retooled the original story into a breezier, more freewheeling affair. As in the earlier film, the wedding ceremony is the high point: Min, the regal bridegroom in traditional Korean garb, enters the banquet hall with a solemnity that makes him seem like a true grownup, rather than the semi-goofy young artist he is. Angela, having ditched her hoodie-centric wardrobe to transform into a beaming bride, also strives to honor the seriousness of the occasion—though a secret she’s been carrying makes a royal mess of the proceedings, and opens stress cracks in the relationships of both couples.
Mostly, this new Wedding Banquet is brisk and funny: when Min learns his grandmother is on the way, Angela, Lee, and Chris have just 45 minutes to “dequeer” Angela and Lee’s comfy-ramshackle house, whisking a copy of Elliot Page’s memoir off the coffee table and debating whether an elderly Korean lady will have any idea what a Lilith Fair poster represents. (To be on the safe side, they hide that away too.)
The tone of this Wedding Banquet is very different from Lee’s original, which ended on a bitter-sweet if tender note, as it reckoned with the ways children can’t always fulfill the dreams of their parents. But Ahn’s version has its own strengths, including a quietly sublime ending that reminds us of a truth that ought to be accepted as a given: there’s no such thing as a “conventional” family, beyond the love and commitment that hold any family together. In 1993, Lee’s Wedding Banquet rang true to the experience of many young people who found it hard to come out to their parents. In 2025, the battle for gay rights is fraught in new ways. We could all use a laugh—and what is a wedding but a time for celebration, and a wish for the future?
