Remaking a beloved movie basic is not any simple activity. Whereas she could have solely been chargeable for performing in Andrew Ahn’s current reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 romantic comedy “The Wedding ceremony Banquet,” Kelly Marie Tran is aware of this sense all-too-well, because the supply materials was close to and pricey to her coronary heart. On the pink carpet premiere of the movie, IndieWire spoke to Tran in regards to the accountability she held in serving to deliver this story to a brand new technology of viewers members and the way it helped that the story wasn’t a 1:1 copy.
“The unique movie is such a seminal second in cinematic historical past, particularly for queer Asian folks, but in addition simply within the midst of nice filmmaking. It actually holds up,” she mentioned. “I’m so excited that we’re making a re-imagining, and our model may be very completely different, but it surely additionally nonetheless honors that authentic movie.”
Particularly, Tran referenced a shot Ahn and co-screenwriter James Schamus — who co-wrote the unique with Lee — managed to slide into the brand new model. Whereas the 1993 take ends with the daddy on the airport holding his arms as he goes by safety, Tran was in a position to provide her personal homage to this for Ahn’s imaginative and prescient.
“Our movie ends on a shot of Angela, my character yawning,” mentioned Tran, “and so her arms are within the air.”
Each the 1993 and the 2025 model of “The Wedding ceremony Banquet” cope with points surrounding LGBTQ romance, however whereas the style was bountiful through the twentieth Century, many are nervous fashionable audiences don’t admire it. Tran understands the hesitation, but in addition thinks the challenges of portraying romance ought to be embraced.
“I hope that it’s more durable to inform love tales, as a result of I hope that we’re persevering with to research what the definition of affection is and widening that definition and recognizing that love doesn’t need to appear to be perhaps what historically folks have been informed it must appear to be,” Tran mentioned. “So I hope that it’s getting more durable as a result of we’re persevering with to innovate and that offers me hope.”
Echoing these sentiments, Ahn additionally informed IndieWire, “I feel relationships have all the time been advanced, and I feel that there have been issues prior to now that have been made to attempt to make it simpler, like patriarchy, heteronormativity. And so I feel we now have to acknowledge that we simply need to embrace all people’s humanity and who they need to love and the way they need to love. And if we will follow that overarching philosophy, hopefully that offers us the way in which to search out and assist all completely different sorts of affection.”
“The Wedding ceremony Banquet” is presently in theaters from Bleecker Road.