The Wedding Banquet puts a twist on a gay rom-com classic in first trailer

What are the ingredients for a modern Wedding Banquet? Try a mother (Joan Chen) who is actually perplexed by her daughter entering a heterosexual marriage; a lesbian couple who are struggling to fund their IVF treatments; and somebody in need of a green card. That last element was also part of Ang Lee’s 1993 film, but the new Wedding Banquet (directed by Andrew Ahn) takes the movie’s unconventional triangle and turns it into a loving, but still unconventional, square, starring Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Bowen Yang, and Han Gi-chan.

As in Lee’s version, a marriage of convenience is proposed to solve the issues of the IVF funding and Min’s (Han Gi-chan) visa issue. But the twist in Anh’s version doesn’t hinge on fear of homophobic backlash (though Min notes in The Wedding Banquet trailer that his grandmother, played by Youn Yuh-jung, doesn’t know he’s gay). Instead, it’s his boyfriend’s reluctance to commit to marriage that sets off this whacky scheme. When Chris (Yang) turns down Min’s proposal, he proposes to their bestie Angela (Tran) instead.

If that sounds a little convoluted, well, that’s the romantic comedy genre for you! The Wedding Banquet recently celebrated its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, and will open in theaters nationwide April 18. Tran previously gushed about the experience of making the film, saying, “The thing that really excited me about it was I got to play a person that I felt like I knew. I don’t feel like I’m acting at all in this movie,” she adds. “I’m here doing this amazing movie with these amazing people. I’ve never been in a queer space before. I’ve never truly felt this accepted before.”