April 21, 2025
SEOUL – “Korean feels best,” Youn Yuh-jung says with a sense of relief. “English is torture for me.”
The 78-year-old actress and her co-star Han Gi-chan have just endured a four-hour marathon of back-to-back interviews in English when we connect over Zoom for our conversation about “The Wedding Banquet,” director Andrew Ahn’s remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 classic.
Han nods in agreement. “Hearing Korean after speaking English all day feels so different,” he says. “It has more authenticity somehow.”
Hitting US theatres Friday, Ahn’s film transforms Lee’s groundbreaking comedy about a gay Taiwanese man who stages a fake marriage to appease his parents into a contemporary story with two neighboring queer couples at its center. Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han) are in a relationship alongside Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone), who are struggling with fertility issues.
When his visa is about to expire, Min proposes a sham marriage to Angela in exchange for financing her partner’s IVF treatments — an heir to a Korean conglomerate with deep pockets, Min sees this arrangement as a temporary fix to buy time until Chris works through his fear of settling down with him. Complications arise when Min’s formidable grandmother (Youn) arrives unexpectedly from Korea to oversee an elaborate traditional wedding.
“I didn’t want to do it at first,” Youn says, her characteristic bluntness on full display. “Reading scripts in English gives me a headache. And I’d done an independent film before — they’re so tight on money, it’s exhausting.”
A hint of warmth emerges, however, when she mentions her children’s influence in persuading her to take up the role.
“But my sons pushed me. They happen to be Americans who love Bowen Yang and have seen Lily Gladstone’s work before,” she explains. “So it became a family decision, and I don’t regret it.”
For director Andrew Ahn, who spoke with The Korea Herald a day after the conversation with Youn and Han, the project allowed him to revisit a foundational text through a contemporary lens.
“Ang Lee’s ‘The Wedding Banquet’ is one of my favorite films and the first queer film I ever saw,” he explains. “So much has changed for the queer community since 1993. I’ve been having conversations with my boyfriend about marriage and kids for years, and I wanted to talk about how queer people build family.”
The most striking difference between the original and the remake is the older generation’s attitudes toward queerness. Where the parents in Ang Lee’s version had to be kept in the dark about their son’s sexuality, Ahn’s film prominently features family members who show varying degrees of support and acceptance.
“I love the character of Angela’s mother May, played by Joan Chen, because she’s overly enthusiastic about her child being queer,” Ahn says. “In Min’s storyline, too, we see how different generations have different priorities, and how meaningful relationships require truly seeing and understanding each other.
“Those characters couldn’t have existed in 1993. I was interested in exploring intergenerational conflict and how parenting and allyship require really seeing someone else.”
Youn’s character, initially skeptical of her grandson’s fiancee, quickly sees through the charade but becomes the couple’s most unexpected champion. When asked if she drew from any personal experience to portray this evolving relationship, Youn waves away the question with the detached ease of a veteran who’s seen it all.
“I’ve been doing this job too long to need inspiration from real life,” she says matter-of-factly. “Next year marks my 60th year acting. At my age — I’ll be 80 in Korean age next year — there’s nothing I can’t understand. The world keeps changing, and you have to accept it whether you understand it or not.
“That’s the wisdom that comes with age. I could play a grandmother without much burden because I can put all my lived experience into the character.”
Han, born in 1998, represents a different generation entirely. Unlike Youn, he had never seen the original film before being cast.
“I was born five years after it came out — maybe my parents saw it,” he laughs. “I decided to wait until after filming to watch it so I could approach the character freshly.”
“You didn’t need to see it,” Youn interjects.
Their generational gap seemed to spill into language as well. Unlike Youn, who speaks English with the cautious precision of someone still finding her footing (she lived in the US from 1975 to 1984), Han delivers it with remarkable fluency and confidence despite this being his first time shooting in America.
“His English is unbelievable,” Youn says. “This was his first time abroad, and he speaks perfectly! That’s the power of Korean mothers. His mother only let him watch English TV growing up.”
Han says with a smile, “I thanked my mother before I left for the shoot. I grew up attending an English kindergarten in Seoul and watching Sesame Street and SpongeBob. Acting in English was always on my bucket list, and getting to do it with someone like Youn in my first English-language project is truly an honor.”
The pair developed a remarkable chemistry despite having never met before filming. Their first scene together — an emotionally charged confrontation — was scheduled for day one of production.
“My son tried to get them to move it later in the schedule,” Youn recalls. “But I’m a professional. Andrew must have had his reasons to shoot it first.”
Ahn speaks reverently of working with Youn, appreciating her decades of experience and insight.
“I loved her honesty on set. After our first take together, I said, ‘That was lovely, can we go again?’ She replied, ‘If it was really lovely, we wouldn’t have to go again.’ She followed up by saying, ‘American directors are so nice. You don’t have to be nice—just tell me what to do.'”
That directness extended to the script itself. When the Korean dialogue felt too literally translated, Youn worked with Ahn to make it sound more authentic. One of the film’s most memorable lines — when her character dismisses Angela, her grandson’s “bride,” as a “lesbian kkotbaem” (lesbian gold digger) — was her own invention.
“That was my idea,” Youn says. “Andrew and I collaborated on the Korean translations throughout the filming. When things felt too direct, they sounded strange. We agreed I could change lines to make them feel more natural.”
The film is set for release in Korea this fall, and everyone involved hopes it will spark meaningful conversations about acceptance.
“My hope,” Ahn says, “is that this film shows these characters with such humanity that audiences can’t deny them. Even if someone doesn’t understand or approve of homosexuality, they might respect these people’s lives and recognize that they want a family just as deeply as anyone else.”
Han, who previously starred in the queer Korean drama “Where Your Eyes Linger,” agrees.
“Koreans tend to be conservative about these issues, but I hope people view this with an open mind as simply a story about love between people. This isn’t just about being queer — it’s about building family, and I hope people can see it from that broader perspective.”
When asked about her thoughts on the film’s reception back home, Youn delivers the perfect deadpan closer.
“I have no message to share. I’m not the Pope.”