Review: The Wedding Banquet (2025)

Posted by: Matthew Ardill  •  April 13, 2025 @ 1:36pm

Filed under: Reviews

Andrew Ahn's The Wedding Banquet is a reimagining of Ang Lee's film of the same name sharing surface similarities, but that's where they end. 2025's version (co-written by Andrew Ahn and James Schamus) – like the 1993 version – follows members of the Asian diaspora living in queer relationships while dealing with marriage and childbirth. We see a couple beats lifted from the original film, but other than that, the 2025 version is very much a film of its own.

2025's The Wedding Banquet stars Bobo Lee, Bowen Yang, Han Gi-Chan, Joan Chen, Kelly Marie Tran, Lilly Gladstone, and Youn Yuh-Jung. Kelly Marie Tran and Lilly Gladstone play Angela and Lee, a Millennial lesbian couple trying to start a family while struggling with Angela's mother May (played by Joan Chen as an overly-enthusiastic ally). They share a home with Angela's former university situationship partner Chris and his boyfriend Min (Bowen Yang and Han Gi-Chan). Chris is a doctorate student "figuring life out" making a living as a birding tour guide, while Min is a fabric artist from South Korea studying abroad. The family unit is completed by Kendall (Bobo Le) who is Chris' younger cousin.

Moved from the east coast to the west, the change in the setting from New York to Seattle has an immediate impact. There was an urban claustrophobia in the 1993 original not found in the remake, giving the characters more room to breath, which helps the film thrive. These are fully realized characters with internalized emotions, genuine relationships, and very real dreams. Lee and Angela are trying for a child and Lee – who has had two failed IVF treatments – is struggling to justify the cost of a third for fear of failing. Meanwhile, Min – who was raised by his affluent grandparents after the death of his own parents as a child – is being pressured by his grandmother Ja-Young (Youn Yuh-Jung), also known as "The Chairwoman", to use his skills as an artist in the family business, ordering him to return to Korea and take a job as creative director for a newly-purchased company owned by the family business.

Deciding he'd rather give up the family fortune and live with Chris as partners, Min proposes to Chris. This triggers the series of events that lead to a wedding and baby, much like the original. But in one of the greatest achievements of this film, it captures the unique spirits of these characters. The love between these four housemates, the love Chris has for Kendall, and the love Min has for his grandmother is all very real and palpable, while the frustration Angela has for her mother is realized and not overblown. It's a grounded struggle communicated in a way that doesn't stray into soap opera theatricality, feeling very genuine.

What also feels genuine are the laughs. There are great moments of humour in this film that are laugh-out-loud funny but also entirely the kind of quips you'd expect between friends and loved ones, and even one of the few recycled beats (the de-queering of the house) is made its own with a couple of jokes I will not ruin but had me bursting out in laughter.

One of the things I found most moving is how The Wedding Banquet treated each generation of characters with respect and dignity. In this film we have four generations whose lives intersect: Ja-Young, who's lost her child and raised her grandchild as her own; Angela's mother May, who is struggling with her guilt; Angela, Lee, Chris, and Min, four Millennials whose struggles makes up the core of this film; and Kendall, who overcame her struggle with her queer identity with the help of her older cousin. All four of these generations get a moment where they learn from and teach one another. They are not blind to one another's struggles but are helping the best they can, and they all have something to share and make one another's lives better.

The film ends on a note of joy, happiness, and hope, which we need right now. When the original was released in 1993, this was going into the peak of the AIDS epidemic and homophobia was still raging. The painful ending of the original reflected the moment. 2025's The Wedding Banquet is being released into a world where homophobia is being emboldened, and hate is at a high not seen in decades. The world has had enough fear and pain and needs hope that this film provides.

Tags: The Wedding Banquet, Andrew Ahn, Bobo Le, Bowen Yang, Han Gi-Chan, Joan Chen, Kelly Marie Tran, Lilly Gladstone, Youn Yuh-Jung, James Schamus

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