Having delivered one of the best queer rom-coms in recent years with 2022's Austenian blast Fire Island, all eyes have been on director Andrew Ahn to see what the Asian American filmmaker's next feature has in store for us. And what's in store, as it goes, is a buzzy reimagining of Ang Lee's seminal 1993 effort The Wedding Banquet, one of the best queer rom-coms of yesteryear. Led by Killers Of The Flower Moon Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone, The Last Jedi's Kelly Marie Tran, SNL alum (and Fire Island collaborator) Bowen Yang, and South Korean star Han Gi-Chan, Ahn's movie follows two queer couples — Lee (Gladstone) and Angela (Tran), and Chris (Yang) and Min (Han) — whose efforts to help each other out quickly descend into chaos. Check out the trailer below;
Co-written by the original movie's co-scribe James Schamus, this first trailer for The Wedding Banquet neatly illustrates why Ahn is the perfect director to tackle a new take on Lee's movie: both directors know that pulling off a multifaceted comedy of manners such as this is tricky business, and it's only by taking the absurdity of the set-up seriously that the laughs can — and, as is evidenced by the chuckles that rack up in this two-minute teaser, indeed do — flow. Hence why despite the wackadoodle premise — a closeted gay man makes a deal with his lesbian pal to secure a green-card marriage for himself and IVF treatment for her — it looks like Ahn's onto another winner, aided in no small part by having an improv machine like Yang leading the line-up and Oscar winner Youn Yuh-Jung in his back pocket (here play Min's Korean grandmother, whose arrival on the scene prompts a speedy call to "de-queer the house!")
And just in case you need that plot outlined just a little more clearly, here's the movie's official synopsis: "Angela (Tran) and her partner Lee (Gladstone) have had repeated unsuccessful IVF treatments, and the financial strain is worsening. Min (Han) and his commitment-phobic boyfriend, Chris (Yang), can’t agree on taking their relationship to the next level, but Min’s student visa is running out. In an attempt to solve the friend group’s ever-growing problems, Min proposes marriage to Angela to secure his green card in exchange for funding Lee’s IVF treatment. When Min’s skeptical grandmother makes a surprise visit and insists on an extravagant wedding, the friends’ commitment to their scheme — and to one another — begins to waiver.”
Will Andrew Ahn's The Wedding Banquet carry Fire Island's torch and go on to be one of 2025's major rom-com successes? Audiences in America will find out when the movie hits cinemas stateside on 18 April. Over here in the UK however, while Ahn's latest is set to be the opening night gala at this year's BFI Flare Film Festival in London on 19 March, we're still waiting to see which lucky distributor will be the one to say "I do" to the film and bring it to UK cinemas.