Ang Lee may be best known for his epic movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Life of Pi, but one of his first Hollywood movies was the rom-com The Wedding Banquet in 1993. More than 30 years later a remake is on the way, with a few modern-day twists.
2025 new movie The Wedding Banquet got its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, alongside the likes of Opus, The Ballad of Wallis Island and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. But when can general audiences watch the movie, who’s in it and what is it about?
Read on for all the details you need to know about The Wedding Banquet.
The Wedding Banquet release date
The Wedding Banquet is going to premiere exclusively in US movie theaters on April 18. At this time, we don’t have any info on when the movie is going to premiere in the UK, though it will screen as part of the BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival in March.
Unfortunately, if you were hoping to watch the original movie before the remake came out, Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet is not currently available online.
The Wedding Banquet cast
A main quartet of actors leads the ensemble cast for The Wedding Banquet, as Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran and Han Gi-Chan play the movie’s two central couples.
Yang is of course best known for his time on Saturday Night Live, though his movie credits also include Wicked and Fire Island. Gladstone was most recently seen in the TV miniseries Under the Bridge, but her most notable role is her Oscar-nominated performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. Kelly Marie Tran has starred in Netflix’s Sweeth Tooth and the Star Wars sequels. For Han Gi-Chan, this is his first Hollywood movie, though he has starred in a number of South Korean TV shows.
Rounding out the supporting cast is Joan Chen, who earned raves for her performance in 2024’s Didi, and Youn Yuh-jung, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Minari.
The Wedding Banquet plot
This remake of The Wedding Banquet was written by Andrew Ahn and James Schamus. Schamus was one of the writers for the original 1993 movie.
Here is the official synopsis:
“Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris and running out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green-card marriage with their friend Angela in exchange for her partner Lee's expensive IVF. Elopement plans are upended, however, when Min's grandmother surprises them with an extravagant Korean wedding banquet.”
The Wedding Banquet trailer
Watch the first trailer for The Wedding Banquet right here:
The Wedding Banquet director
In addition to co-writing the script, Andrew Ahn is the director of The Wedding Banquet. This is Ahn’s second new interpretation of a classic romance story, as his previous movie, Fire Island, was a story loosely based on Pride & Prejudice. Among Ahn’s other notable directing credits are a couple of episodes of Bridgerton and his indie movies Driveways and Spa Night.
The Wedding Banquet behind the scenes
Speaking to Variety at the Sundance Film Festival, here is how Ahn described their new take on the original rom-com story:
“There was a new version of the story we could tell. We can get married. Now that we can get married, should we? Do we want to? As a millennial, there’s this burden of choice. It shifts the generational focus, and it’s looking toward the future.”
Bleecker Street is the main production company/distributor behind the movie. Meanwhile, the movie’s producers are Caroline Clark, Anita Gou, Joe Pirro and James Schamus.
