What do you get when you mix RuPaul’s Drag Race royalty, dim sum, bottomless mimosas, and the cast of the most joyful queer rom-com of the year? The Wedding Banquet drag brunch, of course.
On Sunday, April 13, Bleecker Street and Tremendous Communications hosted a fabulous celebration for The Wedding Banquet, the upcoming film from director Andrew Ahn. Held at CHIFA in Eagle Rock, the event was hosted by All Stars legend Ongina and featured performances by Ally Meda, Thai Theeze, and Saturn. The vibe? Full camp, full glam, and full of love.
A Reimagined Classic
In theaters April 18, The Wedding Banquet reimagines Ang Lee’s groundbreaking 1993 film with a new generation of talent and a modern twist on queer love and chosen family. The film follows Min (Han Gi-Chan), a closeted man who offers to marry his friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) in exchange for helping her partner afford IVF. Their secret elopement is thrown into chaos when Min’s grandmother surprises them with a lavish Korean wedding banquet.
For director Andrew Ahn, the project was deeply personal.
“The original The Wedding Banquet was the first gay movie that I ever saw. And the fact that it was a gay and Asian movie—it was very meaningful to me,” Ahn said at the brunch. “I think I really used my own personal experiences and the phase of life that I’m in to be my creative North Stars. I have a boyfriend, and we’ve been talking about getting married and talking about having kids. And it’s really hard conversations, and they’re very nuanced. And I wanted to find a way to put that in a film and both kind of make fun of it, but also really take it seriously.”
Drag, Dumplings, and Delight
The brunch was a celebration of everything the film stands for: joy, queer love, and community. The crowd sipped mimosas between jaw-dropping performances while the cast mingled and snapped photos under a sea of rainbow lights.
Kelly Marie Tran brought the energy, walking the red carpet in full glam and a full appetite.
“I’m so hungry and so excited to be here,” she laughed. “I want to be fed in multiple ways today.”
On taking the role, Tran said:
“I was just really excited to be a queer person telling a queer story. And that was the most exciting thing to me, and getting to celebrate this part of my identity.”
She also shared what stayed with her from the film:
“The message of having a chosen family. And there’s a line that Bobo Le says—Kendall, Chris’s cousin—says, ‘We’re not good enough alone.’ And I just think that’s such a beautiful sentiment. Together, we’re more than enough. And it’s just beautiful.”
Lily Gladstone echoed the sense of family behind the scenes.
“Charlotte did such an incredible job dressing the whole set and finding the artwork, reaching out and finding artists that would be in the home. And so I have the rug. I picked up the gardening technique that Lee uses in the background… So beyond that, just lovely group of people that I adore and upped my game and made me smile… It was just joyful.”
She added:
“This one felt like… in addition to being an incredible film, just an incredible quality-of-life sort of a thing. And it was just joyful… It’s new, little chosen family. It was everything that you want a job to be. An absolute dream.”
A Star Is Born (with Dim Sum)
For Han Gi-Chan, who plays Min, the film marks his English-language debut—and his first major audition in English.
“This is my first English film, and this was also almost first audition for me in English,” he shared. “That point actually drew my mind. And the other one is that this film has the original right, which I have never done before. This is the first time I’m doing a reimagining film, which has an original. So that was a kind of real big challenge for me, and I really wanted to be a part of it.”
He added:
“This is a story about… it’s a queer story, but also a story about a chosen family… When you’re building your own family, this is a very brave thing you should do, but this could also be a happy moment in your life.”
Asked about weddings, he got adorably romantic:
“The best thing about wedding is that there’s a huge romance in one person’s life, which you could find your own loved one and be all half of your life. So I think that’s a real romantic part when you say, ‘I take her’—that part, it’s really romantic, I guess.”
Come for the Mimosas, Stay for the Message
From the red carpet to the final death drop, the Wedding Banquet drag brunch was a glittery celebration of love, culture, and queer family. And with an all-star cast, heartfelt story, and endless reasons to cheers, the film is one we’ll be toasting to long after the credits roll.
The Wedding Banquet opens in theaters nationwide on April 18.
