Dear Gossips,   

When Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet was released in 1993, about a queer Taiwanese American man who marries a Chinese woman to get her a green card and hiding the truth from his family as they plan the wedding, it’s not like there were a lot of 2SLGBTQ+ stories out there in the mainstream to begin with, let alone stories featuring Asian characters. 

 

Over 30 years later, in parts of the west, progress has been made in queer rights but as we have also seen, especially if we’re looking at women’s rights as an example, progress can be scaled back, and there are forces in place that are actively trying to reverse change. And still, so much of that change has yet to arrive in other parts of the world. 

 

Though simplified, this is the contemporary reality for a new version of The Wedding Banquet, directed and co-written by Andrew Ahn, with an ensemble cast that includes Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-chan, and screen legends Youn Yuh-jung and Joan Chen. The film premiered yesterday at Sundance.

 

Audience reaction has been wonderful and emotional: 

 

And since this is a film that centers East Asian characters, part of its narrative charm is its multigenerational approach because the fact of the matter is, in our East Asian communities, where filial piety is so entrenched in the culture, bringing our elders up to date is a real challenge. 

But also? What a great comeback for Kelly Marie Tran, to see her face on the poster… 

 

…to read the reviews that single out her performance as the heart and soul of the movie. To know after she endured such brutal treatment by the most toxic segment of the Star Wars fandom, she has found a way to continue doing what she loves. 

For more on The Wedding Banquet, Vanity Fair had an exclusive first look a couple of months ago, spending time with the cast in Vancouver during production. This is a deeply personal project for Andrew Ahn who is also relating his own experiences, desires, and ambitions through his film, and through these characters. This is a project with queer East Asian representation in front of and behind the camera and the bond that was forged between these artists was unmistakable on that stage before the Sundance audience last night. Now they get to spend the next couple of months together promoting it before its release on April 18. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey