‘The Wedding Banquet’ Gets A Modern Makeover

Kelly Marie Tran can proudly tout “The Wedding Banquet” as a personal milestone even before the film opens in theaters Friday.

Tran and her co-stars Han Gi-chan, Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang teased their performances in the remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 romantic comedy, directed by Andrew Ahn, in a Vanity Fair feature last fall. In her interview, Tran confirmed she’s queer for the first time publicly. Five months later, she has no regrets.

“I wasn’t planning to come out at all,” the “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” actor told HuffPost. “But this film was such a warm hug of an experience. I remember thinking, ‘I don’t want to hide this part of myself,’ and how hypocritical it would be to enjoy the benefits of this experience and not share that part of me. I’m glad it happened in a way that was natural.”

It’s easy to see why Tran felt encouraged by the quirky charms of “The Wedding Banquet.” The movie follows a Seattle lesbian couple, Angela (Tran) and Lee (Gladstone), who are preparing to start a family.

When an in vitro fertilization treatment leaves them strapped for cash, the women hatch a plan with their gay pals Chris (Yang) and Min (Han), who are also a couple. Angela will marry Min so that she can access his family wealth and he, in turn, can secure a green card to remain in the U.S. and away from his stern Korean grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung). In true rom-com fashion, hijinks soon ensue.

Having explored the intersection of Asian and LGBTQ+ identities in 2016’s “Spa Night” and 2022’s “Fire Island,” Ahn collaborated on the script for “The Wedding Banquet” with James Schamus, who wrote the 1993 film’s screenplay.

The new version reflects marriage equality and the increased visibility of families reared by same-sex parents. The setting was moved from New York to Seattle, which proved pivotal to the backstory for Gladstone’s Indigenous character.

Ahn admits to feeling “daunted” by the prospect of reimagining “The Wedding Banquet” in the present day. After rewatching footage of his brother’s Korean wedding “and thinking about how, as a gay person, [the ceremony] brought up complicated feelings about culture, family and identity,” he became inspired.

“I…