‘Wedding Banquet’ starring Bowen Yang opens BFI Flare Film Festival

Andrew Ahn’s ‘The Wedding banquet”, a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 rom-com, starring Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone, opens this year BFI flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.

The film, which will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday evening, will make its international debut on March 19 at London’s BFI Southbank, with Ahn in attendance.

According to a press release, “The Wedding Banquet” is a “cheerful, error-filled comedy about a chosen family enduring the disasters and joys of family expectations, strangeness and cultural identity.”

The plot description reads: “Angela and her partner Lee have had bad luck with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile, their friend Min, the left-behind scion of a multinational business empire, has a lot of family money but a student visa that will soon expire. When his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris rejects his proposal, Min makes the offer to Angela: a green card marriage in exchange for financing Lee’s IVF. But their plans to elope quietly are disrupted when Min’s skeptical grandmother arrives unannounced from Korea and insists on a grand wedding spectacle.’

In addition to Yang and Gladstone, “The Wedding Banquet” also stars Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-Chan, Joan Chen and Youn Yuh-Jung. The film was co-written by Ahn and James Schamus, who co-wrote the original 1993 script. Producers include Schamus, Anita Gou, Joe Pirro and Caroline Clark.

“I am incredibly excited that ‘The Wedding Banquet’ will make its international premiere at BFI Flare, a festival that celebrates and cultivates queer talent,” Ahn said in a statement. “I am honored to be part of a film legacy that also includes filmmakers such as Amrou Al-Kadhi and Hong Khaou. I have fallen in love with London on my many previous visits, so it feels fitting to bring this love story to the city.”

The full BFI Flare program will be unveiled on February 18.