The Wedding Banquet is a rare kind of remake. In revisiting Ang Lee’s queer 1993 dramedy of the same name, writer-director Andrew Ahn enlisted one of its original screenwriters, James Schamus, to bridge the gap between past and present. These are very different films, powered individually by the spirit of their time.
Lee’s film is carried on the backs of dreams: its central couple, Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) and Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein), can’t legally wed, so the marriage that does take place, between Wai-Tung and his tenant Wei-Wei (May Chin), is to satisfy his parents and secure her a green card. Understandably, the entire situation is tinged with melancholy. There is a constant ache of what might have been.
