Exclusive Interview
‘The Wedding Banquet’ Director Andrew Ahn Is Mapping the ‘North Star’ For Queer Rom-Coms
Queer filmmaker Andrew Ahn first came out to his parents as gay via his short film Dol. The title, which means “first birthday” in Korean, went on to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. It was awarded the Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize. Fast forward to 2025, Ahn is throwing himself a gay Korean wedding via The Wedding Banquet remake. While the subject matter of the film is not all fun and games, it’s an undeniably comedic film.
“I think that the Korean wedding traditions are really funny,” Ahn told Swooon. “You’ve got jujubes and chestnuts being thrown. You’ve got a piggyback ride. And this is something that I saw my brother go through when he got married a decade ago. Making this movie was my way of throwing myself my own Korean wedding.”
The original 1993 film, directed by Ang Lee, who also helmed Sense and Sensibility and Brokeback Mountain, showcased the queer relationship between two men Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) and Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) and their tenant Wei-Wei (May Chin). In order to hide their relationship from their homophobic parents, they stage a wedding between Wai-Tung and Wei-Wei, who is in need of a green card, and things get, well, messy.
Samuel Goldwyn / Everett Collection
Ahn has been open about how the 1993 The Wedding Banquet was the first queer film he ever saw. To this point, he knew he had an important story on his hands while simultaneously an opportunity to bring this story to a modern audience.
“How do we make it feel like it’s about the queer people in our lives today? That was our creative North Star as we went through the adaptation process,” Ahn said.
Co-written with one of the original writers, James Schamus, the script tackles just that. “I wanted to talk about how the queer community has really changed since 1993, and one of the things that’s different is gay people can get married now,” the director noted. “This question is now that we can, do we want to? Should we? Is it something that we actually want or that people just expect of us?”
He continued, “And then this question of children. I really wanted to talk about these very modern themes about building queer family that I think we’re asking ourselves today.”
Starring Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, and Han Gi-chan, The Wedding Banquet follows two queer couples who all live together in Seattle. Angela (Tran) and Lee (Gladstone) are trying to have a baby through IVF treatments. The other couple, Chris (Yang) and Min (Han), are arguing as to whether or not they should get married after having been together for five years.
When Min’s grandmother threatens to make him move back to Korea or lose his inheritance, Min hatches the idea to stage a marriage to get a green card. While Chris is still on the fence as to whether or not he wants to get married, Min charges ahead and instead offers the pact of marriage to Angela, who in return, will receive some of Min’s inheritance to cover her and Lee’s next round of IVF treatment.
The film is rooted in authentic moments shared by the cast and director alike. Gladstone, who grew up in Seattle, gave Ahn a tour around the city. When Ahn asked Gladstone where the characters should go after a night of drinking, she had her answer: Dick’s [Drive-In].
Bleecker Street Media / Everett Collection
“So they [the characters in the film] grab a bag of Dick’s,” said Ahn. “Then my producer, cinematographer, production designer, and I bought some Dick’s. We got their burgers, and they were great.”
As for his own drunken nights, the Los Angeles-born director reflected on his own gay coming of age story, which was set in West Hollywood.
“This was pre-Uber and pre-Lyft,” he made clear. “Sometimes I’d drive myself and be like, ‘Yeah I’m not going to drink, and I’m just going to be able to get home.’ And then would get wasted and have to sleep in the car until I sobered up. I’d wake up, and the car would smell terrible and it would be bright and people would be walking past me just me being a full disaster. So, that’s something that I am very happy I have moved on from in my life.”
Ahn’s experience with romance doesn’t stop with The Wedding Banquet. He has also directed Hulu’s Fire Island, a queer summer adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, written by and starring Joel Kim Booster, along with a prominent Asian-American cast, including Yang. He also directed two Bridgerton Season 3 episodes, one of which featured the internet-breaking carriage scene.)
“I think both in Fire Island and in The Wedding Banquet, I was trying to find ways to show intimacy and kind of the secret language of intimacy that people share, whether it’s friendship or romantic love,” said Ahn. “Between Bowen Yang and Han Gi-chan, there’s a really sweet moment at the beginning of the film in the bathroom where they’re doing their little morning routine with skin care and brushing teeth, and that’s something inspired by my boyfriend.”
Work aside, Ahn has proven himself to be a romantic at heart. He looks forward to watching this year’s theatrical re-release of Joe Wright‘s Pride and Prejudice celebrating the film’s 20th anniversary, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden as Lizzie and Darcy, his proclaimed “favorite movie couple.”
“Maybe people can do a double feature,” the director offered. “They can see The Wedding Banquet and then they go see Pride and Prejudice. And then go see Fire Island at home on Hulu.”
The Wedding Banquet, In Theaters, April 18
