The Movie: The Wedding Banquet
The Director: Andrew Ahn
The Cast: Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-Chan, Bobo Le, Camille Atebe, with Joan Chen, and Youn Yuh-Jung
The Story: A gay man makes a deal with his lesbian friend: a green-card marriage for him, in exchange for in vitro fertilization treatments for her. Plans evolve as Min's grandmother surprises them with a Korean wedding banquet.
The Rating: 7 / 10
The Review:
Okay, I was expecting just a cute, silly comedy so I wasn't prepared for the emotional roller coaster that this movie turned out to be. And I mean that in a very good way. I've never watched the original movie so I don't know how the two might compare. What I do know is that the story is a very modern take on love, relationships, and family and it treats them in a very natural way even during the more comedic moments.
The highlight of the movie for me is the cast, from top to bottom. Everyone undertood the assignment and everyone delivered. From the always amazing Lily Gladstone whose star has risen exponentially over the last couple years to the one and only Joan Chen who has been a prime example of grace and beauty and star power over the course of her storied career. Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung is also in the movie and from what I understand, this role was very important to her based on her own experience with raising a queer son in a conservative Korean culture. All this and I haven't even mantioned that Kelly Marie Tran is in the movie! She is so good and she has a few emotionally impactful scenes that had me up in my emotions.
The story emphasizes the concept of chosen family and the cast does a great job of conveying that through what might be perceived as unconventional relationshisps, friendships, and living situations. The four main characters, played by Tran, Gladstone, Bowen Yang, and Han Gi-Chan (who is hilarious by the way) have so many threads connecting and weaving through each other's lives, for better or worse. That's really the heart of the story and the authenticity of this group existing together makes the absurdity of everything that happens feel very believable.
I also loved how both Joan Chen and Youn Yuh-jung are given the opportunity to not just portray caricature type characters of being from the older, stuck in their ways generation, they are also able to show a willingness for growth and understanding. Just watching these two on screen is worth any price of admission and then to see them together and interacting with each other in very meaningful ways made me feel all kinds of happiness.
Speaking of happiness, that's really at the core of what this movie is about and it's what I felt while watching it. Yes, we all have problems, we all have issues, and we all are going to make bad decisions but ultimately we all just want to be happy and that's what I got from each of the characters in this movie. It's about finding happiness on our own terms and in our own unique way while also creating happiness within our community.
Side Note:
When I found out that the story is set here in Seattle, my first thought was to find out if any of the movie was actually filmed in Seattle because that's been a major issue for quite some time. The city and state need to do a much, much better job of incentivising productions to film here, especially when the story is supposed to take place here. After a bit of research, I saw that a few scenes were filmed in Seattle but most of the production took place in Vancouver, BC which is way too often used as a stand in for Seattle.
Why? It's way cheaper to film there, and most other places, because of tax breaks and other incentives that aren't offered here. Anyway, I don't want to keep going on about this here, just know that it's a source of frustration and hopefully, the city and state can do something about it sooner rather than later. This also takes nothing away from the movie itself or any of the people involved with making it.
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