Andrew Ahn and James Schamus stepped into the spotlight to discuss their reimagining of Ang Lee’s Oscar-nominated 1993 classic The Wedding Banquet and their careers at a “The Makers” event held on Wednesday as part of BFI Flare, the London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.
Director/co-writer Ahn was also asked about the backlash against queer rights in various parts of the world. “I wish it weren’t so fraught, and it makes me incredibly anxious. I can only hope that this film coming out … is is an opportunity for people to build community, watch this film together, gain some strength, and then be able to go out there and fight for what is portrayed on screen,” he said.
“It just shows you it’s never a guarantee. It’s always this pendulum swing.”
Added co-writer/co-producer Schamus: “It was that moment which we all experienced just recently at Sundance [where the movie premiered] and I hope tonight folks will be experiencing here at BFI Flare that joy, queer joy, all joy is a superpower. It’s part of your fight to resist.”
The Wedding Banquet, starring Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran, opens BFI Flare on Wednesday evening.
Ahn and Schamus highlighted that they approached the reimagining with much love and respect for Lee’s original, meaning they didn’t want to even consider a traditional remake.
“You’re not going to make Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet better,” emphasized Ahn. “It’s a very different film,” echoed Schamus.
“I kind of did not want to touch the original film, because I love it so much,” Ahn also shared on Wednesday before telling the story of how he first watched that movie. “I saw the original film when I was eight years old, when it was in a video rental store, and my mother saw it and rented it, not knowing that it was a queer film,” he recalled to much audience laughter.
“We saw it as a family, and it kind of blew my mind. I probably didn’t even recognize at the time what it would mean to me,” Ahn concluded. “But that was the first gay film I’d ever seen. And the fact that it was a gay Asian film, and a film that was told with so much humanity, I think really set me on this path to be the storyteller that I am today.”
Korean American filmmaker Ahn has established himself as “one of the most prominent chroniclers of queer Asian-American life in the last few years,” the BFI Flare event description highlighted. “His films include coming-of-age drama Spa Night, Driveways and rom-com Fire Island, a queer retelling of Pride and Prejudice. He has also directed episodes of Bridgerton, HBO Max’s Genra+ion, and FX documentary series Pride.”
Schamus, an award-winning screenwriter (The Ice Storm), producer (Brokeback Mountain) and director (Indignation), is the co-founder and former CEO of Focus Features, where he shepherded such films as Moonrise Kingdom, Milk, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. His recent productions include Kitty Green’s The Assistant and the Mexican limited television series Somos.