It takes some guts to follow in the footsteps of writer James Schamus and director Ang Lee, but Andrew Ahn has achieved something pretty special here with his big-hearted reinterpretation of the pair’s 1993 arthouse hit The Wedding Banquet. Its unapologetic approach to all the which-ways of human attraction might be a bit full-on for mainstream audiences (it’s hard to imagine something so otherwise wholesome being any gayer), but don’t be surprised to see Ahn’s film pop up in the awards conversation this time next year, even if it doesn’t do Crazy Rich Asians figures at the box office.
The particular stroke of genius at play here is that Ahn has actually put some thought into the way the original story—in which a closeted gay Taiwanese-American man goes through with a fake straight marriage to please his conservative parents—could maintain its relevance so far into the age of gay marriage. His workarounds are ingenious and very funny, and his biggest changes see a playful inversion of traditionally uptight Asian stereotypes.
First out of the gate is Mae-chen (Joan Chen), who we see receiving an Ally Award at a LGBTQ+ event in her native Seattle. Far from being ashamed of her gay daughter Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and her girlfriend Lee (Lily Gladstone), Mae-chen is exhilarated, laughing about the time she caught the young Angela watching lesbian porn, only to receive the pitiful excuse that she was actually watching a figure-drawing art class. Mae-chen also talks loudly about the couple’s recent attempt to get pregnant with I.V.F., their second try, using a highfalutin Taiwanese Yale grad as a donor (“His sperm was very expensive,” she purrs). As they fear, Mae-chen’s enthusiasm is a jinx, and Lee only has one more course of treatment left before the clinic closes her file for good.
Angela lives with Lee in her partner’s late father’s house, which they share with downstairs neighbours Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-Chan). It’s a cordial household, but the
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