The Wedding Banquet 2025 review: Remake of Ang Lee’s classic is a tender rom-com

It takes gumption to remake Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet, a 1993 rom-com that was well ahead of its time.

Only Lee’s second feature, The Wedding Banquet was a smart and funny story that explored interracial relationships, LGBTQI characters, and cultural and generational gaps. It was nominated for an Oscar.

Those subjects on film were far more subversive then than it is now, so how does a 2025 remake engage with that?

Directed and co-written by Andrew Anh, the remake is a wholly American production (the original was a Taiwan-US co-pro) and moves the action from New York City to Seattle, and shifts the ethnicity of the 1993 lead character from Taiwanese to Korean.

Partly, that aligns with Anh’s cultural heritage, and South Korean culture is far more socially conservative which makes for a convincing case as to why Min (Han Gi-chan) would hide his sexuality from his grandparents.

The core triangle of Lee’s film has expanded to two couples: Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone), and Min and Chris (Bowen Yang).

If there is a lead in this ensemble, it’s Angela, a Chinese-American scientist. She has a contentious relationship with her mother May (Joan Chen), who is super involved in allyship groups for families and friends of LGBTQI people, but Angela finds her mum “too much” and there are hints that May wasn’t always so supportive.

Angela and Lee are trying to have a baby via IVF but after a second failed attempt, they are confronted with the fact they can’t afford a third round.

Chris is the kind of person who avoids making any big decision. He’s been with Min for five years but can’t seem to commit any further, nor does he have the motivation to finish off his graduate studies, instead leading bird-watching tours, living in Lee’s guest house and general putting his life on hold.

Min comes from a wealthy Korean family but after seven years in the US, his grandmother Ja-young (Youn Yuh-jung) is calling him home to work for the family business. That’s the last thing Min wants, so he hatches a plan that he and Angela will get married, which will give him a path to a green card and keep his family off his back, and in return, he will fund Lee’s IVF.

Then, Ja-young arrives in Seattle without warning, and insists Min and Angela have a big Korean wedding.

The Wedding Banquet is in some ways a comedy of manners in which lies and omissions result in hijinks. It’s funny but the vibe is more laidback than outlandish.

There are definite nods to the original film – Angela and Lee’s names are obvious hat tips to Ang Lee, in one scene everyone scurries around trying to remove all the queer art from Lee’s house, and there’s mention of a Taiwanese sperm donor early on.

The four lead characters all have their moments – a different, more lowkey performance from Yang, and Tran, whose career was set back after all the vicious trolling from toxic Star Wars fan who took offence that she wasn’t a white man, is effective in conveying Angela’s guardedness.

But the most poignant performance comes from Youn, a South Korean legend who won an Oscar in 2021 for Minari. As Min’s grandmother, Youn gives you a sense of all that she has had to carry in her life, including the regrets she has about her relationship with her grandson.

A scene between Youn and Chen is quiet exchange but speaks volumes about these older characters who are seen as obstacles or problems by their kids, but have these whole inner lives. They see more and understand more than they’re given credit for.

This version of The Wedding Banquet is not as essential as Lee’s film, but it’s a cute movie with some lovely moments that feels exactly of this time.

Rating: 3/5

The Wedding Banquet is in cinemas on May 8