Director Andrew Ahn is back for a three-peat with his new film The Wedding Banquet, a re-imagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 classic.
We chat with Ahn about his updates to the original to capture the new nuances of queer lives today, get behind the scenes tidbits of his time working with his incredible AAvengers cast, and see how the original and his remake have shaped him on a personal level.
The Wedding Banquet is currently premiering in the United States, get tickets in the cinema!
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:13 Film Synopsis
00:03:00 General Reactions (spoiler-free)
00:05:42 Spoiler warning (for both films)
00:06:21 Interview begins
00:12:45 Reimagining The Wedding Banquet
00:13:38 Ahn's first encounter with the original
00:15:19 Adapting with James Schamus
00:17:14 Ahn's updates to the original
00:23:05 Stylistic shifts
00:26:13 New concerns for an evolving queer audience
00:27:48 The films’ endings
00:33:07 New families
00:34:06 The original being more subversive
00:36:00 Watching Ahn's version before Ang's
00:36:54 Connection between Ahn's features
00:38:40 Giving actors their due
00:41:29 Casting the ensemble
00:46:32 Good acting vs most acting
00:48:54 Directing a scene
00:52:01 Editing
00:53:41 Modern gay rom coms
00:55:28 Landscape and location
00:58:44 Coincidences
01:01:49 Has Ang Lee seen the remake?
01:03:19 Eat Drink Man Woman Sidebar
01:05:36 Cinematography
01:08:34 Favorite moment on set
01:11:23 Artmaking as personal diary
01:15:36 The artwork in the film
01:16:19 Directing Youn Yuh-jung
01:18:09 Good filmmaking
01:19:58 Wrap-up