'It's perfectly balanced'

Youn yuh-jung, Andrew Ahn, Joan Chen, Han Gi-chan, Kelly Marie Tran and Bowen Yang at the film's premiere Photo: Amber Wilkinson

Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s Berlinale Golden Bear-winning The Wedding Banquet had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival yesterday. The screenplay, co-written with original writer James Schamus, and which originally revolved around a marriage of convenience, has been expanded to include the messy love lives of four gay friends. This time around it’s Korean Min (Han Gi-chan) who is nearing the end of a student visa stay when he proposes to his boyfriend Chris (Bowen Yang). Things don’t go to plan as Chris proves to be commitment-phobic. Their friends Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone) may provide a solution, since they are struggling to conceive a baby via IVF. A deal is hatched whereby Angela will enter a green card marriage with Min in return for cash for another round of fertility treatment. But things get tricky when Min’s grandma (Youn Yuh-jung) decides to come and meet the bride. The film also stars Joan Chen as Angela’s mother May, and the cast and director were on hand in Park City after the film to talk about it.

Asked about the pressures involved in a remake, he said: “I made it so personal, I think that helped me kind of put away a little bit of that expectation and pressure.”

Youn Yuh-jung in Park City: 'They kept saying, I'm a legend, the legend is that I’ve lived [a] long [time]' Photo: Amber Wilkinson

He added that having the blessing of Ang Lee also helped. When it came to his co-writer James Schamus, he said: “James and I have worked on a movie before, Driveways. But this time we really got to collaborate.”

He adds: “Throughout the filming, I just wanted to make this great.”

The actors also spoke about their characters.

Yang says there’s something for everyone at the end of the film. He explains: “In that third act, you get like a big rom-com climax at City Hall which is very appealing to, I could say, a gay male audience. And then you get this wordless scene in the garden… and that’s mainly appealing to a lesbian audience. It’s all perfectly balanced.”

Joan Chen, however, sparked some hot denial when she suggested there was some weed consumption while they were shooting.

She said the younger cast members “we’re having so much fun on set. YJ and I were a little envious.”

She adds: “They were having gummies.”

Yang says: “That did not happen. They were Haribo. When she heard us laugh, she assumed they were edibles.”

But Chen was adamant. “It was a big bowl of gummies that was sent up by the person who was caring for all the cast. And I said, ‘Oh yeah, I'd like to have some gummies’. He said, ‘Oh Joan, this is not for you’. And he turned and walked in their direction. And then I heard all this giggling.”

Speaking about how she came to the role, Youn recalled her previous time at Sundance with Minari, which ultimately won her an Oscar. She said: “I suffered while we were filming, so I promised myself I'm not going to make any more independents because I had enough in Korea. They kept saying, I'm a legend, the legend is that I’ve lived [a] long [time]. I'm 78 years old.”

She said she only agreed to do it because her son, who lives in New York, is a fan of Ahn’s and persuaded her.

Gi-chan noted that it was his first English language film - and that he hadn’t been born when the original was made in 1993. “I was born in 1998,” he said, so Andrew’s film was the original for him. He adds: “The main character has some similarities with my life, that really caught my imagination. He didn’t have love and support when he was young and, for me, I was trying to act and my parents didn’t want me to be an actor.”

The film will open BFI Flare in March and be released in the UK by Universal later in the year.