Filmmaker Andrew Ahn has established himself as a prominent chronicler of queer Asian-American life on film.
My Book:
In 2016, his debut feature Spa Night, a coming-of-age drama about a closeted Korean-American teen working at an all-male spa in L.A.’s Koreatown, premiered at the Sundance Film Fes and announced a distinct new voice in queer cinema, eventually winning the John Cassavetes Award at the 32nd Independent Spirit Awards.
In 2022, he scored a major streaming hit with the bawdy rom-com Fire Island, an energetic Pride and Prejudice retelling that placed Asian-American gay men in a story set in the legendarily hedonistic—and at times, very white—gay hideaway.
The Wedding Banquet | |
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The Wedding Banquet is a 2025 American romantic
Ahn considers the original a crucial inspiration, not just as a filmmaker making queer films, but as an Asian-American man living a queer life.
“It’s a film that I saw when I was eight years old,” he told GQ last year. “My family and I were at a video rental store and my mom saw the VHS for The Wedding Banquet and said, ‘Oh, this is that movie about Asian people that white people are watching. We should see what it’s about.’ And so, we rented it—not knowing that it was actually a queer film—and watched the film. And as a nascent gay boy, not really aware of my sexuality in a conscious way, it stuck with me. I’ve never forgotten it. And I think it was because, deep down inside, I knew that I was queer.”
When Ahn rewatched the film in college, it took on a deeper resonance. “What I find so special about Ang Lee’s Wedding Banquet is that this question of sexuality and culture and family, they’re all affecting each other,” he said. “I love the reality that our romantic relationships, especially when you start building something more profound, something deeper, your partner starts interacting with your parents. What does that mean? And then they have to understand your culture and how you grew up and, what are the rituals?
As a Korean-American person, it’s something I think is part of my queerness… When I came to the realization consciously that I’m gay, in college, I really wanted to tell my parents first because I didn’t want them to find out some other way and feel betrayed.”
“I’ve been so inspired throughout my entire career to tell stories that really try and reconcile both an Asian-American identity with a queer identity. I have been thinking about how those two things can sit within the same person comfortably.
Intersectional Identities
And so, now that I get to direct a remake, it feels very full circle to me. It’s The Wedding Banquet I’ve thought about for years—not necessarily to remake it, but just as something that really talks about the intersectional identities of who we are.”
Credits:
Directed by Andrew Ahn
Screenplay by Andrew Ahn, James Schamus
Based on The Wedding Banquet by Ang Lee, Neil Peng, Schamus
Produced by Anita Gou, Joe Pirro, Caroline Clark
Cinematography Ki Jin Kim
Edited by Geraud Brisson
Music by Jay Wadley
Production: ShivHans Pictures; Kindred Spirit; Symbolic Exchange
Distributed by Bleecker Street, ShivHans Pictures
Release dates: Jan 27, 2025 (Sundance); April 18, 2025
Running time: 102 minutes