It’s wedding season for the gays! After the delightful nuptials of A Nice Indian Boy comes The Wedding Banquet. It’s another reason to say “I do” and throw rice, whether basmati or colossal grain.
Much like A Nice Indian Boy, The Wedding Banquet delivers a winning rom com set at an intersection of queer and diverse experiences. The Wedding Banquet updates Ang Lee’s 1993 contemporary classic about a Chinese-American gay couple that convinces a female friend to participate in a marriage of convenience to thwart conservative parents. However, same sex marriage isn’t the same easy punch line, or taboo, in 2025 as it was in 1993.
This reimagining by Andrew Ahn (Fire Island) film doubles down by queering a landmark queer film. It makes the bride-to-be part of a lesbian couple desperately seeking a baby. It’s a winning reimagining of the film that finds a universal message about selfless love, while also celebrating the various forms of love and family. And, in doing so, acknowledges that marriage equality marks a hard-won fight, it isn’t for everyone. This walk down the aisle marks another refreshing comedy from Ahn with relatable lived-in characters and an authentic sense of self.
Ahn finds two great pairs of actors to bring these lovebird couples to life. In one corner are Bowen Yang and Han Gi-chan as Chris and Min. Chris is a Chinese-American born stateside, while South Korean Min enjoys time in America on a work visa. Neither guy feels settled, though. Chris offers birding tours to fund his extended sabbatical from his dissertation in queer studies. Min, meanwhile, coasts at his family company. They both make art on the side, almost like living embodiments of the queer theory that Chris peppers into conversation.
In the other corner are Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran). They seem to be in a higher stage of adulthood. Both have stable jobs and want to become moms. Well, Lee more so than Angela. Lee endures the in-vitro, while Angela worries about her parenting skills given that her mom, May (a wonderful Joan Chen), struggled to accept her daughter’s queerness for years. May now wears it like a self-serving badge of honour, as she humorously accepts an award for being an ally when the film begins. In some cases, acceptance remains a journey for the parents.
There’s a refreshingly different case, however, when Min makes a modest proposal. His grandmother, Ja-young (Youn Yuh-jung), says it’s time to come home as his visa approaches its expiry date. But Min isn’t out to his conservative family. Marrying Chris, which he proposes, puts his financial security at risk. Chris says no, finding the whole thing heteronormatively icky and financially risky. Min instead makes a pitch to their girlfriends: he’ll marry Angela to secure a green card and pay for Lee’s in-vitro in return.
It all seems like a perfect fix. Ahn’s comedy, scripted with the original Wedding Banquet co-writer James Schamus, has a lot of fun making a subversive flip on marriage. Queer people fought for marriage equality for so long that posing as a heterosexual couple to tie the knot seems blasphemous. But only May really seems to mind on that front.
The impending nuptials face a serious trial, though, when grandma Ja-young arrives from Korea. She wants to meet this bride whose existence was just made known to her. Her raised eyebrows over Min’s news shows that he isn’t fooling anyone. If he wants to put on a show, she’ll make him go all in.
Yuh-jung, who delivered such a warmly heartfelt performance in her Oscar winning turn in Minari, proves a delight here. The Wedding Banquet crafts this grandmother with care. Having submitted to an arranged marriage, she knows what it means to for a marriage to be made without love. This recognition affords Min love and compassion that surprises him. It also grants The Wedding Banquet a touching intergenerational element as May and Ja-young bond over conflicted feelings. May wants a grandchild if only to overcompensate for the lack of love she gave Angela in her youth. They want the best for their kids/grandkids, but have to accept that such a definition differs generationally.
While The Wedding Banquet sometimes swings into broad comedy while widening the appeal, Ahn finds humour in specificity. The film amusingly plays with culture clashes not just between American and Asian customs, but also between Korean and Chinese traditions as Min and Angela trudge through their charade. The film uses its sense of humour effectively by queering some elements, offering in-jokes for some pockets of the audience and entry points for others. In a scene in which Min learns of Chris’s infidelity, for example, he seems more betrayed by the fact that his boyfriend “topped” for once. The joke drew a hearty laugh from one pocket of the press screening and a delayed chuckle from the others, which speaks to the film’s juggling act with themes both specific and universal.
The four leads also inspire lots of love. Yang enjoys his first notable leading man role as Chris. The part isn’t a stretch from the awkward and self-aware characters he’s played from Fire Island to Bros to SNL to Wicked. But he’s fun and comfortable within the character’s skin as a man who can’t shed his sense of inadequacy. Meanwhile, Gi-chan’s comparatively diminutive presence admittedly leaves some dramatic and comedic sags by comparison. But that’s also the character. Life teaches Min to be subservient, and this wedding tasks him to find his voice. He really grows on a viewer.
Tran and Gladstone enjoy the more complicated and dynamic roles as Angela and Lee. The latter marks an especially delightful surprise in a romantic comedy. After her exceptional if deadpan serious turn in Killers of the Flower Moon, Gladstone proves a comedic delight. Tran, meanwhile, ties the quartet together, as Angela’s rapport with Lee and Chris (her BFF) makes a refreshingly authentic portrait of queer relationships and friendship.
While The Wedding Banquet plays a lark of love and marriage with two guys and two girls, it proudly creates space for families outside hetero norms. As Chris, Min, Lee, and Angela confront their true desires when it comes to marriage, family, and co-parenting, The Wedding Banquet shares a refreshing “whatever works” philosophy.
