SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Angela and Lee and Chris and Min are both couples - one, two women, the other, two men, all good friends living in Seattle. Angela and Lee are focused on their ongoing efforts to bring a child into their lives. But the two women are running out of money for their IVF procedures.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE WEDDING BANQUET")
HAN GI-CHAN: (As Min) Chris and I will be very good gunkles. We can babysit anytime. I'll teach the baby art, and Chris will change the diapers.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: And the other couple? Min, who is Korean, wants to marry Chris - a love match - but Chris is shy about commitments. And so Min, who is from a wealthy industrial Korean family, has a bold idea - why doesn't he just marry their friend Angela and pay for her IVF treatments, so she and Lee could have a child and he can stay in the U.S. with Chris? What could possibly go wrong? Then the story really begins.
"The Wedding Banquet" is a new film directed by Andrew Ahn. Andrew Ahn joins us now from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
ANDREW AHN: Thank you so much for having me.
SIMON: Min's grandmother is so beautifully played by the Oscar-winning actress Youn Yuh-jung. She suddenly comes to town. She senses a scheme, but still wants a big wedding ceremony - Korean ceremony. Why?
AHN: (Laughter). Yeah. You know, I think that this film is so much about parenting, and there's an intergenerational conflict about, you know, the values and priorities of one generation over another. And I wanted to show how, you know, even though these characters care for each other, that they can, you know, not see eye to eye. And that parenting, in many ways, is a process of understanding each other's priorities.
SIMON: Oh, and Angela's mother, so beautifully played by Joan Chen - she's all right with the plan. But she's concerned it might change her public image, isn't she?
AHN: (Laughter) Yes. It's - it was a fun update for me, you know, in thinking about how much has changed in the past 30 years since, you know, the original Ang Lee's "The Wedding Banquet." And, you know, one of those fun changes is that, you know, what if we showed an Asian American mother who was overly enthusiastic about her daughter being queer (laughter)? And so she's winning awards for being a great queer ally, and is kind of overcompensating for some past trauma that they are going to have to deal with in order for Angela to feel good about her becoming a mother.
SIMON: You have - at the center of this film, of course, is four LGBTQ people living very openly. But still, in this day and age, each of them has their own story about the challenges of coming out, don't they?
AHN: It's still so difficult, as queer people, to live, you know, holistic, whole lives. You know, I think we are code-switching. You know, I think about how we have to navigate kind of different levels of outedness and, you know, who we are to some people in certain spaces. And I wanted to show how, you know, complicated the lives of queer people can be just even amongst ourselves.
SIMON: So many strong actors in this film, including, obviously, an Academy Award winner and then an Oscar nominee - Lily Gladstone - and Joan Chen, who is also a director herself. Was this intimidating for you?
AHN: (Laughter) You know, it could have been, for sure. But this was such an incredible ensemble, and everybody was so generous. You know, I'll say there was one moment I was a little bit scared. It was the very first take of the very first scene that I shot with Academy Award winner Youn Yuh-jung. I went up to her after the first take, and I said, that was lovely. Can we go again? And she looked at me, and she said, Andrew, if that was really lovely, we wouldn't have to go again.
SIMON: Ooh. Ooh. Ooh.
AHN: (Laughter) And then she told me, you know, American directors are so nice. You don't have to be so nice. Just give me the note and we'll go again. And, you know, I really appreciated that, you know, she was so honest and direct, and that made for a really lovely collaboration.
SIMON: The friends think they've come up with really a brilliant plan. But like a lot of brilliant plans, there's an unforeseen doozy of a complication, isn't there?
AHN: Of course, yeah. You know, I think it's so interesting working from, you know, the original Ang Lee film, just trying to find ways to update things. And, you know, in the original film, you know, gay people couldn't get married. But 30 years later, now we can. Why would you have a fake straight wedding? And then I realized, oh, there's many reasons why, you know, queer people might not want to get married - you know, that burden of choice, you know, that I think a lot of millennials feel, and this fear that maybe you'll ruin something that's already so good. And I thought a lot about, you know, my relationship with my boyfriend, and the conversations that we've had about commitment and building family, in the creation and development of this "Wedding Banquet."
SIMON: Seems to be a moment when all four of the major characters who are staging an event are suddenly sobered when they hear a member of the clergy say, I hope you find happiness together.
AHN: Yeah. You know, I think - I wanted to show a Korean wedding in the film. And I wanted to show tradition and ritual and how it's incredibly important in our lives, even if it may not suit us. You know, I saw my brother get married about a decade ago, and I saw him go through this traditional Korean wedding ceremony. You know, I saw how it brought him closer to my parents. It brought him closer to his wife. It brought him closer to his Korean identity. And as a gay man, I wondered if I could ever participate in something like that, and it made me very sad. And so in many ways, my writing, you know, this film with my co-writer, James Schamus, was, you know, my way of throwing myself my own Korean wedding (laughter) and trying to be a part of that tradition. And maybe try and make it more inclusive - you know, queer it a little bit.
SIMON: And I do have to ask - does anybody ever say, you'll never get the money together to make a film like this?
AHN: Oh, of course. You know, I remember when I had my first feature at Sundance. It was a film called "Spa Night." I couldn't imagine, you know, having a career, you know, making queer and Asian American films. And that made me so sad because I feel like there are so many beautiful stories within our community. You know, I think cinema has to be reflective of, you know, the world that we live in. And it's diverse and it's queer and it's, you know, funny, and it's sad (laughter), you know? Like, I think it's really important that people get to tell stories about, you know, who they are - personal stories. You know, it's been a real honor to my community that I've been able to, you know, focus my career on, you know, people that I love.
SIMON: Andrew Ahn has directed the new film "The Wedding Banquet," in theaters now. Thank you so much for being with us.
AHN: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF PEGGY GOU SONG, "HAN JAN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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