O BANQUETE DE CASAMENTO

The Wedding Banquet is a delightful, heartfelt remake of Ang Lee's 1993 classic that takes a beloved, time-honored premise and refreshes it for a new era. While the original film navigated issues of immigration, identity, and secrecy in a delicate blend of drama and comedy, this film shifts the focus toward relationships and personal growth, exploring the emotional depth of its characters with humor and sincerity.

The film's comedy, though undeniably lighthearted, works largely because the film is brisk, without sacrificing the emotional truth of the characters. The narrative unfolds at a fast pace, each twist and turn propelled by a charming, almost sitcom-like energy.

While the plot may feel predictable at times, and some of the situations bordering on farce, the direction allows the characters to shine through the chaos, striking a balance, using humor to gloss over some of the more contrived plot points, yet never losing sight of the genuine emotional moments at the film's heart.

The blend of comedy and sincerity is where the film truly excels. It never leans too heavily into one side, allowing for moments of deep emotional truth to coexist with the lighthearted absurdity of the characters' increasingly ridiculous plans. When the film slows down, the dialogue crackles with authenticity-especially during the quieter exchanges.

There is, however, a sense that the film could have pushed further into daring or edgier territory. It does not venture into particularly risky or provocative comedic waters. While this makes it a more accessible film for a broader audience, it also feels, at times, a little safe. In the era of modern streaming comedies and edgy narratives, a more bold exploration of the entanglements that ensue might have added another layer of excitement or complexity to the film.

Watched at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

I wasn't sure how a remake would work with And Lee's classic queer romantic comedy but color me surprise, the remake does a pretty good job on being creative from it's source material with new energy, humor, and atmosphere. Andrew Ahn is a director I have been keeping up with as his work Spa Night, Driveways and Fire Island have been pretty great and emotional engaging to observe. Here, Ahn's direction on the atmosphere, dialogue, and the character dynamics are pretty good. Being able to capture the emotions, hilarious dynamics, and some of the oddity and funny moments in both heartwarming and somewhat chaotic ways.

With a good presentation, all of the performances are great as many of the cast members are able to provide fun energy, personality and purpose to their characters. Bowen Yang particular stands out at his best. Narrative-wise, I do appreciate some new themes they were able to explore but there are some moments that felt a little uninspired with the concepts and dynamics that Ahn explores. Including how the production feels almost too fake like something from Netflix and some of the structure feels a little strange, which does make some moments a bit distracting and dragging a bit.

But overall, I didn't expect much for this remake but it was surprisingly not too bad and it went beyond the expectations.

They took a really wonderful movie (the 1993 original), and remade it as another lazy, run of the mill romantic comedy that's trying desperately to be modern and relevant.

Bowen Yang's acting performance was distractingly bad. However, Joan Chen and Lily Gladstone's acting performances were good and solid. But they couldn't save the film.

Overall, I think this one is worth skipping and will probably be forgotten about in 5 years.

I'm glad that this movie will at least bring more attention to the original, and maybe expose people to Ang Lee's earlier work which I personally think is his best.

Remember the "Proposal" (2009)? Well this is a sort of derivative of that only here it is two gay couples who decide that a bit of judicious legerdemain might enable one to get a green card and another to fund some fertility treatment. You see, commitment-phobe "Chris" (Bowen Wang) has been with his wealthy Korean boyfriend "Min" (Han Gi-Chan) for years but won't marry him. This irks his partner who also has pressures from his family at home who want to bring him home to work in the family business and marry a nice girl. Meantime, best pal "Lee" (Lily Gladstone) and girlfriend "Angela" (Kelly Marie Tran) are trying to conceive via IVF but are having no luck. It would appear that the solution to both of their problems might lie in a marriage of convenience. Far-fetched? Well the best bit is yet to come as grandma (Youn Yuh-jung) arrives from Seoul determined to find out just what is going on and to protect her grandson from what she clearly suspects is some money-grabbers. It takes her about two minutes to suss things out so now the couples have to pray that she will go along with their scheme, else everything will come crashing down. There are a few funny scenes here, but for the most part if you watch any amount of American gay cinema then you will have seen this all before. Wang offers us very little new here and the plot lurches just a bit too close to the preposterous for me as the underlying pretence of the theme goes from silly to sillier and the characterisations slip effortlessly into multifarious, sometimes quite cringeworthy, stereotypes. I do hope it takes a few quid at the box office, though, because Han Gi-chan could sure use a decent meal!

'The Wedding Banquet' is not a masterpiece, but I enjoyed and loved it. Frankly, LGBT romance does not move me as much as heterosexual romance of the same quality because when I try to put myself in the main character's shoes, the latter is way much easier. However, 'The Wedding Banquet' does a great job of making me fall in love with the characters. Four main characters are introduced properly in the beginning. They have distinctive personalities, and the dynamics of the group is interesting. Even I want to be included in this group.

I especially liked not only Yoon's character but her acting as well. Grandmother gives this feel-good movie meaning and sense. She provides how boomers look at modern day relationships and a traditional, institutional ceremony called marriage. She is confused but tries hard to understand and love her grandson as he is. Yoon's acting is so genuine, delicate, and elegant all at the same time. Brilliant performance.