It’s always a challenge to remake a classic film like Ang Lee’s 1993 rom-com, The Wedding Banquet.
But it helps to have the original writer on board, along with Lee’s blessing. Writer-director Andrew Ahn was up for the challenge with James Schamus, who wrote the original screenplay and the 2025 reimagining of The Wedding Banquet with his director.
The new version stars Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang and South Korean film newcomer Han Gi-chan. The two same-sex couples are fast friends who have all struggled with family members when they came out as queer. Except one, Gi-chan’s character Min, whose extremely wealthy family would cut him off if they knew he was gay.
But Min is head over heels in love with Yang’s character Chris, and asks for his hand in marriage.
At the same time, Gladstone and Tran are trying to have a baby via IVF.
Enter one of the moms, an overly supportive Joan Chen, and a grandmother played by Oscar-winner Youn Yuh-Jung – and secrets, lies, manipulations and games ensue as the film offers a heartfelt look at the concept of chosen family versus family of origin.
“Andrew was interested in imagining this in a new kind of way,” Schamus said after a preview screening in Los Angeles. “This is the third or fourth film I’ve worked on with Ang and of course he’d be offended [about the remake] unless this guy could come up with something new, fresh, unique and real.”
Ahn first saw the 1993 film when he was eight years old, not knowing it was a queer film and said he was thankful that the film held such a place in his personal history.
“But look at how much the community has changed since ‘93, with couples wanting marriage and children. I felt like I had a personal reason to make this film,” he said. “What if the bride was also gay and in a couple? Why would you get fake married when it could be real? Two characters plan to have a baby, and that was a journey we could track.”
Because romantic comedies often feature the trope of “father knows best,” it was specifically decided to leave them out and focus on the matriarchs.
“Our collaboration was in finding a foundational story with elements that felt organic to today’s queer culture,” Ahn said.
They also had fun with the fact that the names of the female couple, Angela and Lee was a direct reference to Ang Lee. Interestingly, the original name for Gladstone’s character was Liz and she was the one who suggested that it be changed to Lee as part of her representation of indigenous culture.
