DIRECTOR
Andrew Ahn
(Fire Island, Driveways, Spa Night)

STARS
Bowen Yang, Han Gi-Chan, Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Joan Chen and Youn Yuh-jung

A lesbian couple on an IVF journey to become parents. A gay couple who could be considering marriage. A grandmother who pays a surprise visit from Korea.

This queer romantic comedic drama, a reimagining of the 1993 Ang Lee film of the same name, has all of the right characters seated at the roundtable to be the crowd-pleasing and fulfilling hit it undoubtedly aspires to be, yet does find itself missing a few ingredients to accomplish just that.

Min (Han Gi-Chan) is a young Korean who works for his grandmother’s multinational family-run corporation whose visa is soon to expire. Given that he has been with boyfriend Chris (played by Bowen Yang, who had a role in Wicked) for a number of years, Min decides now is the time to propose. But Chris, a commitment-phobe, isn’t ready for that next step in their relationship. Meanwhile, Lee (played by Lily Gladstone, the Oscar-nominated actress from Martin Scorsese’s 3½ hour Killers of the Flower Moon) is starting her second attempt at IVF to have a baby with long-term partner, Angela (Kelly Marie Tran). Angela, who has been best buds with Chris before she met Lee, has ongoing issues with her mother, May (Joan Chen) that still plague her to this day. When one of these characters concocts a crazy idea, it results in an unexpected visit from Min’s grandmother, Ja-Young (played by Oscar-winning actress Youn Yuh-jung from Minari) that upends their lives.

The Wedding Banquet dishes out decent servings of depth in its backstory and characterisation that do lend themselves well to these characters and the connections audiences are capable of forming to them. For example, it realistically presents the challenges that a lack of genuine acceptance of one’s sexuality has on that individual and the resulting impacts to other relationships in their life. Or some of the complexities that arise and the inherent risk to relationships surviving when a couple aren’t on the same page or stage in life with monumental life decisions. It is fair to say that the drama genre component of this film is where it needs to be for it to be more than where it ultimately sits. This banquet, despite featuring a full menu consisting of all required elements for a comedic drama to work its magic in equal measure, does underfeed us in some areas. Namely, the screenplay is shorter in producing scenarios and writing lines of dialogue that ensure it is consistently humourous enough. I often felt like I was waiting for that one classic scene or ripping line of dialogue to start elevating the film above the solid enough level it remains stationary at, but it was never forthcoming. Sadly, not even at the relatively short-lived titular banquet. Its pacing is part of the problem here, which is often one or two steps slower than it needed to be and without variation throughout. One thing that does have variation is Han Gi-Chan’s acting, yet not always in a complimentary way! From an acting perspective though, I most enjoyed seeing Lily Gladstone in this role and thought she was delightful. But the performance many will find most profound belongs to Youn Yuh-jung, who proves her Oscar triumph at the 2021 Academy Awards ® was no fluke.

Sugar, ya. Everything nice, yep suffice. Spice, it needed to roll the dice.

The Wedding Banquet is showing in selected cinemas across Australia from May 8th 2025.

Moviedoc thanks Maslow Entertainment and Nixco for the invitation to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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