Review of The Wedding Banquet, directed by Andrew Ahn

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

Because of the lack of money coming my way, I had to be picky about the kinds of subscriptions and services I was getting ahold of during this time, and I used my local library a lot. I am so incredibly privileged and blessed to be living in a city where we have a decent enough library system where I can get the books I want, when I want, and not have to worry about access to movies because of their DVD collection and how they have Kanopy.

This particular movie is one I wanted to see in theaters, but I was unemployed, lacking a car, and I no longer had A List through AMC (a domestic theater chain if you’re not from the US; they offer a subscription where you can see four movies a week) because of the previous reasons.

So I patiently waited until my local library had a DVD copy.And when my hold came in, you bet I watched this movie immediately. I was completely and utterly ready to watch it from the moment I got the email that it had arrived at my local branch.

Let’s get into this review! I can see this introduction is getting a little long.

Two gay/lesbian couples find themselves in an odd situation: one of the girls and a boy are getting fake married to appease his rich Korean family.

Before we get into the details about this movie, it feels appropriate to mention the original The Wedding Banquet, which released almost thirty years ago and was directed by Ang Lee. I have not had the chance to watch it at the time of typing out this review, so I cannot compare the two movies. I defer that to someone else who has seen both and can be more of an expert on that subject.

Anyways: our main characters in this movie are a lesbian couple, Angela and Lee, and a gay couple, Chris and Min. Angela and Lee live in Lee’s family’s home in Seattle, while Chris and Min have a cute shack situation on the property. It’s ironic considering Min is from a wealthy chaebol Korean family, but more on that later.

One day Min receives a call from his grandmother in Korea, who tells him that he’s been hiding out in the United States too long. His student visa is expiring and now she wants him to come home and run the family business, which he’s not too happy about.

As Angela and Lee explore the possibilities of IVF, they learn that Lee continues to have fertility issues and their second round has failed. A third round will be expensive and the two have their doubts about whether they can afford it or not, leading Lee to suggest that maybe Angela should be the one to get pregnant.

This leads into a fight about how Angela has mommy issues, but then when they come home they find Min has proposed to Chris. Chris says no because he thinks that Min only did it for a green card and refuses to let him be cut off from his wealthy family, so Min then comes up with the diabolical idea that he should marry Angela instead.

At first Angela is extremely hesitant, but agrees after Min offers to pay for the IVF. He goes to tell his grandmother after she agrees, and Angela has a fight with her mother, who is an award winning member of the LGBTQ+ allies club in the area, about how she’s incredibly performative about this.

At the bachelorette party Angela is still miserable about her situation, and when she bonds with Chris over how this sucks, they get drunk and end up sleeping together. Min’s grandmother arrives not long after, they try to hide all of the lesbian art and literature, but sitting down at a table with Min and Angela she figures it out immediately.

She tells her grandson she knows he’s gay, and the five of them sit down to discuss the situation. She agrees to not forcing Min to work at the company, but then hatches a different plan. They’re going to have an elaborate fake wedding, including press, to trick his grandfather (who is peak homophobic). Angela learns she’s pregnant with Chris’ baby after this and breaks down.

Everyone goes along with it and wedding preparations begin. Min makes his grandmother a homemade hanbok while her presence helps calm Chris down as they chat about his family. Lee continues her treatments, then it’s time for the wedding. They have a traditional Korean ceremony where they invite all of his grandmother’s employees and some of their fellow queer friends—it’s quite obvious this is fake on so many levels, but only one person needs to be fooled.

Angela, who throws up on Min, confesses that she’s pregnant to Chris and Min. Lee overhears what’s happening and leaves, angered by what she has heard. Min’s grandmother watches as Min leaves with his luggage as well, as Chris breaks up with him because he believes he only messes up Min’s life.

It’s through his grandmother, Ja-young, that she discusses how she married someone she did not love, but Min was able to find people who loved him so dearly. Everyone mends their problems from there, Angela keeps the baby, then it’s time for the courthouse vows. As Angela and Min stand up there, Chris rolls up and tells Min to marry him. They get married with Ja-young watching, and Angela goes home to Lee to fix their problems.

The film ends with Lee and Angela having given birth and all four of them caring to the babies in the same house.

Overall Thoughts

Was this my favorite movie? I wouldn’t say so, but it certainly was a lot of fun and cool to see this form of representation on-screen. Some of the jokes landed really well with me, and I loved the little quirky moments that were scattered here and there throughout the movie.

I think the movie’s strengths lies in its heart, which is the four main characters. Youn You-jung’s character is one I grew to love a lot, even more than the main leads. I feel like like Lee especially was severely underutilized throughout the plot, and that we don’t really learn much about Min or Chris.

For example, I would have loved to see more about each of the four characters and their backstories. I understand we have a time limit and this is set in a very specific moment in their lives, but I expected more at the end of the day. I am quite happy that I saw this movie, even if I think it’s flawed.

That’s why I would still recommend it to anyone who’s interested in what it has to say! It’s definitely worth picking up at least once, that’s for sure. Find a DVD copy, rent it on streaming—it would make a lovely Friday night movie.

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