Latest news with #TheWeddingBanquet
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Film picks: John Lui recommended the Italian Film Festival, The Wedding Banquet and Walking With Dinosaurs
23rd Italian Film Festival The 2025 slate of films marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Singapore, and covers the genres of fiction, documentary and animation. The Italian Film Festival is organised by the Embassy of Italy in Singapore in collaboration with The Projector and the Singapore Film Society. The historical drama Vermiglio (2024, NC16, 119 minutes, screens on June 15, 4.30pm) is set in 1944. With the war drawing to a close, a stranger appears in the mountain village of the film's title, located high in the Italian Alps. He is Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), a deserter from the south of the coun try. He and Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), the eldest daughter of a local teacher, fall in love. Their relationship will transform the lives of those around them as more of Pietro's past comes to light. Film-maker Maura Delpero drew on her family's history to shape the story by returning to her family home to interview aunts and other villagers. The film won the Grand Jury Prize of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and was selected as Italy's entry to the Best International Feature Film section of the 2025 Academy Awards. Where: The Projector at Cineleisure Orchard, 8 Grange Road MRT: Somerset When: June 7 to 22, various times Admission: $16.50 standard, with concessions for students, seniors, Singapore Film Society members and others Info: The Wedding Banquet (R21) 103 minutes, limited screenings at The Projector at Cineleisure from May 30 (From left) Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan and Bowen Yang in The Wedding Banquet. PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES This remake of Lee Ang's 1993 film of the same name kicks off The Projector's Pink Screen season of films with an LGBTQ+ theme. The story follows Angela (Kelly Marie Tran), who lives with her partner Lee (Lily Gladstone) in Seattle. They are trying for a baby through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), but are running short of funds. Angela's best friend Chris (Bowen Yang) is worried that his partner Min (Han Gi-chan), a student from South Korea and the scion of a wealthy family, will be forced to leave once his visa expires. Angela's mother May (Joan Chen) is an ally, but Min's grandmother Ja-young (Youn Yuh-jung) is unlikely to support her grandson's relationship. A plan is born: Min and Angela will marry for the sake of his residency in the US. In return, Min will pay for Lee's IVF treatments. Chaos and comedy follow when Ja-young announces a visit. A review in The New Yorker magazine asks: 'In an era of wider LGBTQ+ acceptance, how do you fashion a romantic comedy predicated on the deceptions of the closet? Korean-American director and co-writer Andrew Ahn answers that question with the knowledge that acceptance brings pointed complications of its own. It's the warmth of Gladstone's presence that endows this remake with a whisper of something new.' The May 30 premiere is a fund-raiser for Proud Spaces, a community centre dedicated to building belonging for queer folks and allies in Singapore. Among the post-show events are fake weddings and a festival opening party at the No Spoilers lounge from 10.30pm to 12.30am. Walking With Dinosaurs A close-up of a Tyrannosaurus rex as it emerges from the forest in the BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs. PHOTO: BBC When the original series was released in 1999, its realistic computer-generated creatures caused a sensation. Narrated by actor and film-maker Kenneth Branagh, it spawned a new genre of documentary that used digital images to recreate animals from Earth's past. The six-part reboot from BBC Studios updates the science with more recent findings about the way the creatures lived, hunted, fought and died using state-of-the-art visual effects, with narration provided by Olivier and Tony award-winning actor Bertie Carvel. The series is available to stream on BBC Player. It will also be on the BBC Earth channel ( StarHub TV Channel 407 and Singtel TV Channel 203 ), Sundays at 8pm, from June 1. On July 5, from 5pm, families are invited to take along their picnic mats to the BBC Earth Screening Festival at Gardens by the Bay, with this series as the featured title. Entry is free at the event, held at the Supertree Grove. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
New Statesman
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
The Wedding Banquet is a breath of fresh air
Photo by BFA / Luka Cyprian / Bleecker Street In Ang Lee's 1993 film The Wedding Banquet, the conflict centred around Wai-Tung, a closeted Taiwanese-American man, and his sham marriage to a woman. Fashioned as a screwball comedy but sharply, sensitively observed, it wrung laughter from the awkwardness of navigating cultural and inter-generational differences. With its elaborate central bacchanal and a running joke about Wai-Tung's live-in white boyfriend secretly cooking all the food, it was an international hit. But while its farcical elements remain timeless, today, its coming out narrative feels almost quaint. The legalisation of gay marriage, along with increased LGBT representation in pop culture, has created an opportunity to tell different, more complex queer stories. It's also an opportunity to make different jokes. In Korean-American director Andrew Ahn's deft remake, he doubles down on the original film's zany plot: in his Wedding Banquet, one half of a lesbian couple agrees to a straight marriage with the partner of her gay best friend. The film revolves around two long-term couples, Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone), and their best friends Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-Chan). Angela and Lee are struggling to have a baby following several unsuccessful rounds of expensive IVF. Min, a wealthy art student from Korea, needs to secure his visa or else move home and take over the family business. And Chris, a PhD student with commitment issues, won't marry him. 'I am not going to be responsible for you losing your money or being disowned by your family,' he insists. So Min suggests a workaround: he will pay for his friends' IVF in exchange for a green card marriage. But when his grandmother Ja-Young (Minari's Youn Yuh-jung) gets wind that he's engaged, she arrives in Seattle and insists on a big Korean wedding. Director Ahn and writer James Schamus (who co-wrote the original film) move the story from Nineties Manhattan to present day Seattle, updating the source material in various, amusing ways. The 1993 film took gentle jabs at yuppie culture, with an estate agent protagonist who spent all his free time at the gym. Ahn lovingly teases his own cohort; his hipster millennial ensemble include an aspiring artist with a 10-step skincare routine, a community organizer at a queer nonprofit, a literature student-turned-birdwatching guide, and my favourite, a researcher in a worm lab. The one-liners are all sharp elbows; 'Queer theory takes the joy out of being gay,' deadpans Chris of his lapsed PhD. Yet when it comes to the supporting characters, Ahn refuses to trade in stereotypes for the sake of a gag. Min's formidable, no-nonsense grandmother is portrayed as intelligent rather than simply 'wise' while Angela's glamorous, domineering mother May (a very funny and charming Joan Chen) is not only accepting of her daughter's queerness, but an ally, glowing and sparkling with pride. 'My own daughter, marrying a man!' she gasps when she hears her news. Angela, of course, finds her 'triggering.' Romantic comedies often focus on courtship rather than commitment, which is perhaps why films like this one, along with Tina Fey's recent TV remake of Alan Alda's The Four Seasons, feels like a breath of fresh air. The Four Seasons questions if romance and domesticity can coexist, through the prism of three middle-aged married couples. Similarly, in The Wedding Banquet, though the characters express interest in the rituals of marriage and becoming parents, there's an unwillingness to buy into those institutions wholesale. Tellingly, the film's big drunken set piece takes place at Angela's hen do, not the wedding. Mostly, the film is lighthearted and fun, which is why it wobbles a little when trying to find its balance. Ahn treats the theme of a chosen family with earnest, weary seriousness, but the grounded dramatic performances can jar with the zippier jokes. Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) is a dab hand with both, but a sombre, too-realistic confrontation between her and Tran's Angela feels like it belongs in a different movie. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe 'The Wedding Banquet' is in cinemas now Related
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New Movies on Streaming: ‘A Minecraft Movie,' ‘Snow White' + More
Did you miss some of this year's most-talked-about movies when they came out in theaters? Not to worry, they're arriving this week on VOD. Hits like A Minecraft Movie and Snow White are new to digital, along with dozens of other great titles. Another title we're excited for is The Wedding Banquet which is also available to stream this week. In the film, a remake of the 1993 Ang Lee movie, Han Gi-Chan stars as Min, a gay Korean man living in Seattle whose friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) agrees to marry him so he can get a green card after his boyfriend Chris (Bowen Yang) refuses to commit. The whole plot blows up when Min's grandmother – who doesn't know Min is gay and that the marriage is fake – arrives to throw a massive celebratory wedding banquet and the ruse is discovered, and everyone's secrets spill out into the open. These are just a few of the films that are available to watch on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, YouTube, and through your cable service this week. Check out what movies are available to buy or rent on demand now. L-l-l-ava! Ch-ch-ch-chicken! The movie that your kids can't stop singing along with is now available for you all to watch and sing along with at home. (Whether you throw your snacks at the screen is up to you.) A Minecraft Movie, starring Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge and Danielle Brooks, has made its way to VOD this week, and in case you've been living under a giant, block-shaped rock, you'd know that the movie is the first (but perhaps not the last) film adaptation of the best-selling video game. WHERE TO WATCH A MINECRAFT MOVIE Disney's live-action Snow White movie has been many years in the making and plagued by various controversies, and now, after a theatrical run, it's coming to digital. Rachel Zegler stars as an innocent young princess who becomes roommate to seven computer-generated men after her mean stepmother keeps trying to get her to engage in creepy beauty contest. Watch the movie, or for added entertainment just skim through the 125,000+ comments on the YouTube trailer. WHERE TO WATCH SNOW WHITE The Heiress and the Handyman Ileana's Smile A Minecraft Movie The Wedding Banquet Snow White Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy The Lost Princess Topakk Solitude The Featherweight The Severed Sun Hunting Grounds Desert Dawn The Rhythm The Uninvited Bound (2025) A Breed Apart V13 Burner Mulan Princess Warrior Off Season The Darkside of Society Silent Partners Meme Gods Southern Village What you see above is just a portion of the new movies and shows you can watch this month if you've got more than one streaming service subscription. We update our guides to the new releases on the most popular streaming platforms every month, so you can stay on top of the freshest titles to watch. Here are full lists, schedules, and reviews for everything streaming: New on Netflix this month New on Amazon Prime this month New on Hulu this month New on Disney+ this month New on Max this month New on Paramount+ this month New on Peacock this month New on Starz this month New on Acorn TV this month New on BritBox this month New on Tubi this month Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
NZ Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Queer love and family shine in flawed Wedding Banquet update
Solid cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan and Bowen Yang. Photo / Supplied The Wedding Banquet, directed by Andrew Ahn, is out now. At a dispiriting moment in history when 'diversity' is being weaponised as a dirty word, it's refreshing to watch a story about two couples' romantic travails within the context of race, sexuality and the immigrant experience. This remake of Ang
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
At the Movies for 14 May 2025
Simon Morris checks out two films based on well-known material - just not well-known by him! Irish film Lies we tell is a 19th century thriller, The wedding banquet is a remake of one of Ang Lee's first films. He also previews the upcoming French Film Festival Aotearoa. Lies We Tell tells the story of an heiress whose shady uncle plans to get hold of her fortune by forcing her to marry his son. It was a big winner at the Irish Film Awards, including best actress for star Agnes O'Casey (Small Things Like These) The wedding banquet is a remake of the 1993 crowd-pleaser, written and directed by Ang Lee. This one stars Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live), Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars), Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) and Joan Chen (Twin Peaks). Fergus Grady, Director of the French Film Festival Aotearoa, previews this year's programme - a star-studded affair featuring Sarah Bernhardt, Charles Aznavour, Marie Antoinette, the Count of Monte Cristo, Laure Calamy, two films about art thieves and the story behind Ravel's "Bolero"! To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
