‘The Wedding Banquet’ Review: Mothers Always Know Best In Andrew Ahn’s Big-Hearted Remake Of A Gay Classic – Sundance Film Festival
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.
