The Wedding Banquet [2025]
Film
32 years after Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet was released, and two years after it was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry, a modern reimagining has been given to us by Andrew Ahn. Backed by a star-studded cast—including Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Joan Chen, Youn Yuh-joung, and Bowen Yang—Ahn’s remake of Lee’s classic preserves the original’s core theme of marriages of convenience, while introducing timely, modern conflicts. The two couples at the epicenter of The Wedding Banquet, Angela (Tran) and Lee (Gladstone), and Chris (Yang) and Min (Han Gi-chan), enter into an arrangement much like the original where Min and Angela agree to get married to appease Min's traditional grandmother (Yuh-joung). The payoff for Angela, outside of being a good friend (or wife?), is Min will help front the cost for her and Lee's ongoing IVF treatments. Not only does Ahn's film stay true to Lee's source material, but the inclusion of two same sex couples and the very real, human, problems such as unsuccessful and expensive IVF treatments makes The Wedding Banquet much more in tune with the current landscape.
It's fair to ask whether we really needed a remake of The Wedding Banquet—and even if the answer leans toward “no,” Ahn’s attempt to inject new relevance and depth is still worth acknowledging. Unfortunately, the slick new-age visuals and themes prove less than fruitful, as Ahn's film is mired with lax development, clunky writing, and failing to hit home on the emotional notes that powered the heart and soul of Lee's original.
The main culprit is just how messy Ahn's film is. Its characters are messy, their arcs underdeveloped, and the titular arrangement feels more confusing than compelling. The web of relationships at the film’s center unfolds in a disjointed, sometimes incoherent fashion. Now there's some poetic redemption here in terms of the messiness of the main quartet being a reflection of life's, encountering problems and solutions one could've never predicted such as a marriage agreement in order to pay for IVF treatment. Regardless, the construction of The Wedding Banquet relies on a shaky foundation, especially pertaining to Chris' staunch opposition to commitment-which is only partially explained by Min's proposal to him for the purpose of getting citizenship, but we're led to believe there's more fueling Chris' hesitation. The intra-group dynamics—Lee and Min being close, Angela and Chris sharing a past, including having slept together—are not fully reconciled with the characters’ present-day motivations, creating friction that feels more accidental than intentional. The ensuing chaotic composition of storytelling causes some real pacing issues especially in the first act of the film, which feels like it takes way too long to develop to the dramatic scheme at the center.
Not to mention, the tributary moments to Lee's original film don't feel authentic. Instead, these retreads-like Angela, Lee and Chris removing all of the queer art from their home-come across as attempts to follow in the footsteps of the film's predecessor. The surprise conflict even makes a reprise, in a different context, but instead of being amplified by Ahn's modern direction (something that could've really made its mark in the film) its resolution is murky at best. Ultimately, moments that conjure the spirit of Ang Lee's classic film feel more like mandatory checked boxes to achieve the goal of being a remake instead of injecting a new wave of heart and soul.
Without the sturdiness of the relationships in The Wedding Banquet, the building blocks don't quite stack up like they should. Preventing the heart of the film, the reconciliation of each couple, from truly landing. Ahn's star-studded cast is enough alone to drive anyone to see the film, and they fill their roles well enough with Joan Chen being an absolute stand-out. In the end, there just isn't enough holding The Wedding Banquet together, and as much as you want to root for it, this might just be another remake that didn't have to happen.
Froth
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