“Should have been a TV series”: Fans react as rom-com remake The Wedding Banquet arrives in theatres

Lily Gladstone joins Bowen Yang and Joan Chen in The Wedding Banquet remake, which has arrived in theaters across the US. It's a remake of the 1993 film of the same name, co-written and directed by the Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee. Andrew Ahn directed this film based on an adapted screenplay he co-wrote with James Schamus. Ahn's previous feature film, Fire Island, was an LGBTQIA+-themed romance drama inspired by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Ahn's latest film, The Wedding Banquet, is a romantic comedy-drama that revolves around a gay man and a lesbian woman who decide to marry each other. However, things get more complicated as the man's grandmother decides to attend the wedding. Its synopsis reads,

"From Director Andrew Ahn comes a joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness, and cultural identity. Angela and her partner Lee have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile, their friend Min, the closeted scion of a multinational corporate empire, has plenty of family money but a soon-to-expire student visa. When his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris rejects his proposal, Min makes the offer to Angela instead: a green card marriage in exchange for funding Lee’sIVF. But their plans to quietly elope are upended when Min’s skeptical grandmother flies in from Korea unannounced, insisting on an all-out wedding extravaganza."

Now that The Wedding Banquet has been released in theaters, fans have started sharing their response on social media. In a similar Reddit thread, a user thought that the film had more things to unpack than what its less-than-two-hour runtime offers. They said,

"Just watched this. I agree that this should have been a tv series in order to really serve the complex issues that the main characters had. In updating the story, I think they had to make it a lot more serious than the original comedy. Bowen Yang threw in a Kingdom Hearts reference, lol."

Disclaimer: This article might contain spoilers for The Wedding Banquet. Reader discretion is advised.

Fans react to Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone's The Wedding Banquet remake upon its release

The Wedding Banquet is stacked with a talented cast from the Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone, Oscar-winning Minari star Youn Yuh-jung, Twin Peaks star Joan Chen, and SNL star Bowen Yang. Kelly Marie Tran and Han Gi-chan play the two leads. Upon its release, viewers started sharing their responses online on Letterboxd and Reddit.

In a Letterboxd review, Brandon Streussnig shared his experience.

"I sat down with Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran for a great conversation on acting worlds of emotion nonverbally, what it means to hold the joy of representation on screen with the pain of being persecuted in real life, and the role of found family in queer communities."

Robert Daniels also praised the film by saying,

"I just thought this was incredibly lovely, funny, and highly rewatchable. I certainly have my criticisms: Bowen Yang doesn’t carry big emotions well; Lily Gladstone is underused; Ahn sometimes opts for restrictive framing of actors’ faces, thereby undercutting their performances. But I still think much of this was touching, especially the stellar work by Joan Chen and Youn Yuh-jung, who really carry the theme of deferred love with a soulfulness that made this broad screwball comedy infinitely tighter and more memorable."

However, some viewers were not as pleased with The Wedding Banquet. In a Reddit thread, a user said,

"My boyfriend and I had pretty mixed to positive reactions to this. It looks great and updated in a way that feels true and interesting, and features some great work, particularly Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Youn yuh Jong, and Joan Chen. But my god are all the funny parts shown in the trailer. There are just not nearly enough jokes, and even though it moves and has some really beautiful dramatic moments, the lack of "fun" being had in this farce feels like a disappointment on some level."

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Another user compared it to A Nice Indian Boy, a multi-cultural romance drama also in theaters.

"I thought this was so weak. The story was sweet and had potential, but the writing was clunky, forced, and awkward. The pacing and storytelling were so off from the beginning. Compared to the excellent “A Nice Indian Boy” earlier this month, this felt so lifeless. The actors (especially Tran and Gladstone) do some good work trying to salvage the material, but it’s just not enough."

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