BFI Flare launched yesterday with a humdinger of an opening movie: Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 The Wedding Banquet. Ahn’s partner in creating this update, James Schamus, also co-wrote Ang Lee’s version. While the original film features a single gay couple and a marriage of convenience, the reboot has two gay couples, which multiplies the dramatic and comedic possibilities of the situation hugely. The result is a perfect blend of humour, humanity and an occasional touch of heartbreak, a feat which seems effortless but which both co-writers admitted was like “chewing on the bones” as they reexamined “every look, every line” in each scene in post-production to deliver the right, natural balance.
Themes of parenthood, commitment, love and friendship are deftly and sensitively explored. The bride’s mother and groom’s grandmother approach the lives of their gay offspring in different ways. The groom’s grandmother, played by Yoon Yuh-jung as the Seoul-based chaebol halmoni (with, as it turns out, a surprisingly sensitive gaydar), is initially stern and uncompromising as she converses with Min by videoconference in the presence of the family lawyer, while Joan Chen as Angela’s Seattle-based mother comes across rather like Umma in Kim’s Convenience, boasting about her daughter as a way of boosting her own standing in the community. Both come to adjust their style of (grand)parenting over the course of the movie as the relations between the various characters evolve.
The film is enlivened by some great one-liners (“I don’t want to be American” protests Min. “The trains are so slow and I don’t know how much to tip”) and some fun set-pieces (as the foursome desperately try to de-gay their house in advance of the impending arrival of Min’s grandmother) and also has some lovely camerawork in the Seattle countryside, aided by Chris’s birdwatching activities.
I sadly missed the chance to watch Spa Night (2016), Ahn’s first feature film, in London when it screened at Queer East last year (the advance publicity didn’t make the experience sound very appealing) but it’s certainly one I’ll be making an effort to watch whenever I can, along with Driveways (2019) and Fire Island (2022), all of which were briefly discussed at a screen talk immediately before the opening night screening.
The BFI programmers have added a fourth screening of The Wedding Banquet, which still has some seats available. Well worth your time.