A Streaming Guide to <i>The Wedding Banquet</i>

The Wedding Banquet redefines what it means to say “I do.” The warm and clever reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 queer cinema classic is the latest film from writer-director Andrew Ahn (Fire Island). It has an all-star cast that includes Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang, Youn Yuh-jung, and Han Gi-chan.

Set in Seattle, the modern day rom-com centers on four close friends navigating love, family, and identity within a web of cultural expectations. When Min (Gi-chan), a closeted Korean heir, proposes a green card marriage to Angela (Tran) to stay in the U.S., she agrees on one condition: He must fund her partner Lee’s (Gladstone) next rounds of IVF. What starts as a seemingly straightforward arrangement quickly escalates into a grand affair when Min’s traditional grandmother (Yuh-jung) shows up and insists on throwing a lavish Korean wedding.

For Gladstone, the role of Lee gave her a chance to lean into her comedic instincts. “Even though Lee is sort of the straight man to everyone else’s chaos, getting the chance to be as cartoony and goofy as I am naturally was really nice,” she told The Seattle Times.

Tran, meanwhile, described the experience of filming as personally transformative. Speaking to ELLE on April 16, she said, “It was just such a cathartic experience to be able to play those moments out on screen.”

During production, Tran publicly came out as queer for the first time, a moment she described as emotional but empowering: “I don’t want to hide this part of myself that I’m celebrating in this beautiful piece of art,” she told Variety.

Writer James Schamus, who co-wrote the original Wedding Banquet, returned to collaborate on the new screenplay. “He preserved everything that was so charming about the original,” Gladstone shared in an interview with Cinema Daily. “It was really clever, preserving the heart of it. We’re thrilled because he’s continuing the life of The Wedding Banquet.”

Ahn, too, saw this version as deeply personal: “Filmmaking is a group project,” he told Newsweek. “I wanted to create a cast and crew that could support each other, not just making the movie, but hopefully in the future too...It’s very meaningful to me that I think we made lifelong bonds on this film, and I think that it will enrich us for the rest of our lives.”

With vibrant performances and a nuanced look at what it means to build family—biological or chosen—The Wedding Banquet lands as both a spiritual sequel and a joyous story in its own right. “It’s not a story about good timing,” Gi-chan told Cinema Daily. “It is a story for all times.”

Not yet. The film opened in theaters nationwide today, following a buzzy festival run. While no official release date has been confirmed, the film is expected to arrive on streaming platforms later this year. A placeholder page for the film already exists on Apple TV+, suggesting it will be available for purchase or rental soon.

In the meantime, the only way to attend this banquet is in theaters, no invitation required.

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