NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The filmmaker Andrew Ahn grew up in what he calls 鈥渁 Blockbuster Video family.鈥� They would rent three or four movies every weekend. When Ahn was 8, his mom rented the VHS for 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet.鈥�
鈥淪he was like, 鈥業t鈥檚 this Asian movie that white people are talking about,鈥欌�� Ahn remembers. 鈥淪he rented it not knowing it was queer.鈥�
Lee鈥檚 1993 film followed a Taiwanese immigrant New Yorker (Winston Chao) who attempts to marry a woman (May Chin) to placate his parents and hide his gay partner (Mitchell Lichtenstein) from them. It was a still-rare gay, Asian American rom-com that became an Oscar-nominated landmark.
When Ahn, 39, was approached about revisiting 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet,鈥� he was daunted. But, as the son of Korean immigrants, Ahn, whose movies include 鈥淒riveways鈥� and 鈥淔ire Island,鈥� felt like he had something to contribute.
鈥淭hroughout my career I鈥檝e tried to explore this balance between sexuality and culture and family,鈥� Ahn said in a recent interview over coffee. 鈥淚 saw many gay films coming of age as a gay man where those things felt kind of siloed. Here, you could see how they were so intertwined. Watching it when I was 8 years old really set the bar.鈥�
which opens in theaters Friday, is the most personal of remakes. Even that word, 鈥渞emake,鈥� his collaborators avoid when talking about it. Ahn鈥檚 film, starring Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang and Han Gi-chan, revisits and rebuilds Lee鈥檚 queer comedy of errors for a new generation.
鈥淚t started with a very simple proposition: Nobody is remaking 鈥楾he Wedding Banquet,鈥欌�� says , who co-wrote both the original and Ahn鈥檚 film. 鈥淭he only way this film gets made is if we reenvision and take inspiration from Ang Lee鈥檚 original movie. But the fundamental requirement was: It must be something new and it must be something of our time.鈥�
Just as Lee鈥檚 film was, Ahn鈥檚 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet鈥� is 鈥渟omething fixed in history,鈥� as A jubilant farce, radiant with queer love, 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet鈥� arrives 32 years later as both a big-screen symbol of what鈥檚 changed for LGBTQ people since then, and what hasn鈥檛. Made last year, 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet鈥� premiered at the Sundance Film Festival just a week after the ushered in . That鈥檚 prompted Ahn and his cast to reconsider, and double down on, what this 鈥淲edding Banquet鈥� means for right now.
鈥淚t鈥檚 creating a space where joy is an act of resistance,鈥� says Gladstone.
鈥淭he joy of that community is under profound threat,鈥� Schamus says. 鈥淵ou would say to yourself maybe: Is this the time to have a queer romantic comedy? Things are not that funny right now. The answer to that very reasonable question is: This is what you鈥檙e fighting for. That joy is profoundly important, for everybody.鈥�
Expanding the wedding parties
Ahn鈥檚 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet鈥� centers not one couple but two. Min (Han) is in love with his partner, Chris (Yang), but, to fool his soon-to-visit grandmother Min tries for a sham wedding with Angela (Tran), their friend and housemate. She鈥檒l earn enough money in the transaction to pay for her IVF treatment with her partner, Lee (Gladstone).
Here, the family traditions are Korean, not Taiwanese. The intergenerational relationships (also visiting is Angela鈥檚 mother, played by Joan Chen) have evolved. And the questions facing the couples 鈥� to marry, to have children 鈥� are much different than they were for closeted gay couples decades ago.
鈥淭he stakes in the original are placed in survival,鈥� says Yang, who also starred in Ahn鈥檚 鈥淔ire Island.鈥� 鈥淭he sham wedding has to happen as a way to preserve this relationship that he has. To me, the thematic thing in this version is about community. It鈥檚 about roots. It鈥檚 about establishing a sense of place.鈥�
Ahn鈥檚 antic yet sensitive film, set primarily around the Seattle home of Lee, a member of the Duwamish Tribe who purchased it to reclaim her family's land, is a textured portrait of a careening and chaotic but deeply loving home. Ahn, whose previous films have been warmed by a gentle sincerity, creates a patchwork dramedy stitched together by the intimacies and uncertainties of its two couples.
鈥楾his film is the most like me鈥�
For Ahn, much of the movie came straight from his own experiences, so much so that, he says, he takes critiques of the film personally.
鈥淭here are a lot of moments I鈥檝e drawn from my life. The argument in the alley between Kelly Marie Tran鈥檚 character and Lily Gladstone鈥檚 character, and Kelly鈥檚 character says, 鈥業f it happens, it happens,鈥欌�� says Ahn. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 something my boyfriend said to me the first time we talked about having kids.鈥�
Tran, who came out publicly while make 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet,鈥� found herself playing a character unusually close to herself, and in a working environment unfamiliar to the 鈥淪tar Wars: The Last Jedi鈥� star.
鈥淭he whole crew and the whole cast being primarily queer wasn鈥檛 something I experienced before,鈥� says Tran. 鈥淎nd I didn鈥檛 realize how healing that would be.鈥�
Gladstone concurs: 鈥淓verybody who knows me well says that this film is the most like me of anything I鈥檝e done.鈥�
Yang, who was subjected to scientifically discredited as a teenager, says both versions of 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet鈥� correlate with something profound for him. He saw Lee鈥檚 film while in college, when he was concealing his sexuality from his parents. The film鈥檚 ending struck him as a kind of aspiration for him and his family. Maybe they could reach that level of understanding one day, he hoped.
鈥淭he movie ends on uncertainty but it still ends with this hug and it gave me this weird hope that if I could get to that point with my family, then things will be OK, then I could jump off from there,鈥� Yang says. 鈥淪o I have this personal check-in where I can chart the arc with my own family, where I鈥檓 now very transparent with them about that part of my life, where they鈥檙e asking me if I鈥檓 dating anybody, which I never thought would happen.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty amazing benchmark for me.鈥�
鈥楢 high quality-of-life project鈥�
Whether 鈥淭he Wedding Banquet鈥� will connect with audiences the same way Lee's film did remains to be seen. But what's already clear is that Ahn's film reverberates with a spirit of tenderness and hope that will be sustaining for a wide swath of moviegoers. Gladstone, who signed onto it after her Oscar-nominated performance in refers to the film as 鈥渁 high quality-of-life project,鈥� and her co-stars hope the movie has a similar effect for its audience.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very complicated to be celebrating a community that鈥檚 also being persecuted at that very moment,鈥� says Tran. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot to hold and to acknowledge all of it. I鈥檝e definitely had that experience before, not particularly with the queer part of my identity but with the Asian part of my identity. What a privilege to be part of this beautiful piece of art that celebrates this community.鈥�
鈥淣ow that we鈥檙e facing headwinds, it kind of loops back to survival,鈥� says Yang. 鈥淏oth films are about survival. They are just each other鈥檚 corollary.鈥�
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
