Joan Chen Runs Away With The Wedding Banquet

by

Joan Chen is currently in top form as an actress. While she’s consistently excellent, her current work surpasses the norm. She played a pivotal role in last summer’s beloved hit Dìdi, and now she’s reprising her talents on the silver screen for Andrew Ahn’s updated version of The Wedding Banquet, which made its debut at Sundance on January 27.

In the spirit of Ang Lee’s film, Ahn has modernized the story for a world where being queer is more about navigating challenges than committing sins. The director posed the question, “With marriage now an option, do we really desire it?” in his opening statement. Titled The Wedding Banquet, this movie follows two intertwined couples: Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone), and Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-chan, making his English-language debut). Struggling with fertility issues after two unsuccessful IVF attempts, Angela and Lee are unsure if they can afford another round without mortgaging their home. Meanwhile, Min loves Chris but is uncertain about his commitment. If Min doesn’t marry soon, his family intends to send him back to Korea to manage the family business instead of pursuing his art career in the U.S.

The two pairs devise an unconventional scheme to achieve their goals: Min and Angela will enter into a marriage so that Min can legally reside in the U.S., while Chris decides his future, with Min later repaying by funding another round of IVF for Lee. This plan should work provided Min’s intimidating grandmother Ja-Young Hyun (portrayed by Youn Yuh-jung, winner of an Oscar for Minari) doesn’t pry too deeply. Despite Min’s apprehension about his family’s judgment, Angela faces the opposite issue. Her mother, May Chen (played by Chen), is surprisingly accepting of Angela’s sexuality to the point that Angela getting a sham heterosexual marriage causes more distress for her mom than it does for herself. In fact, May serves on the board of PFLAG, making it challenging for her to have a heterosexual daughter.

May Chen is charmingly exuberant and undeniably glamorous, and she takes pride in being an ally, particularly one in the public eye. She’s incredibly open-minded, and Chen wears her righteousness with a playful wink. Initially, Chen was almost cast as Tran’s character in Lee’s original film, but scheduling and budget constraints resulted in her being replaced. “This time around, it’s fantastic,” Chen commented, followed by a chuckle, “I just couldn’t play the female role, though.

It would be ideal for any child who identifies as queer to have a parent as open and accepting as Angela’s mother – but that’s the challenge with Angela’s mom. She doesn’t naturally possess these qualities, although she tries hard to give that impression to the LGBTQ+ community. The truth is, Angela isn’t so much self-conscious about her queerness as she is insecure about everything else, and May’s overzealous acceptance only exacerbates the situation. Angela’s feelings of resentment build and fester: The angrier she becomes, the more May pushes her acceptance. Everything seems to revolve around May for Angela. Every time Tran shows a worried expression after her mother does something, even the tiniest action, it elicits laughter from the audience at the Eccles Theater.

In the manner of typical complex romantic comedies, The Wedding Banquet‘s four characters find their grand absurd scheme not quite unfolding as expected. Eventually, Angela’s feelings of anger towards her mother erupt into a heated confrontation, during which Chen reveals all her hidden intentions. As an overpowering mother, Chen has the ability to make even understanding seem menacing and intimacy appear frightening. She significantly adds depth to Ahn’s unbalanced wedding-themed farce, giving the movie a sense of genuine tension and high stakes.

As a dedicated cinephile, I was there in the audience as Ahn and his cast (except for Gladstone who was still filming) received a thunderous standing ovation at the end of the movie. A few folks near me were dabbing away tears from their eyes. The fabulous Chen, resplendent in a chic baby-blue fur, graced the stage adorned with sequins – pure elegance, true icon. When she started talking about her involvement in the film, she jokingly went off on a tangent about how the young cast had sneaked away to “indulge in gummies and laugh.” Bowen Yang tried to clarify that they were just Haribos, not anything stronger, but Chen shook her head. “The PA brought the gummies for them and made it clear that they weren’t meant for me,” she explained, causing the crowd to erupt in cheers. Chen smiled – a true star, even without the gummies.

Read More

2025-01-31 01:54